On 17th January, the first Blockchain based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were launched on Nasdaq, by Amplify Trust ETF and Reality Shares Advisors.

Reality Shares\' Nasdaq NextGen Economy ETF (BLCN) had an opening trading price of $24.20 while Amplify\'s Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) started trading at around $20.

Following industry comment which stated that investing in blockchain startups is a risk because there are limited guidelines regarding the technology, it has been revealed that both ETFs will exclusively invest in blockchain-based companies. However, they have confirmed that the money will only support and fund companies which have a market cap of $200 million or greater, and who have on average at least $1 million available for a six-month daily trading period.

Kian Salehizadeh, an analyst with Reality Shares explained that the company wanted to develop a Blockchain technology related ETF instead of another bitcoin fund. He added that the company’s name originally had the world Blockchain within it but they were asked to remove it by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC has not officially approved the ETFs, yet without formal disapproval, the ETF has been approved by default. However, the SEC has 75 days to raise any objections. Many companies have filed for blockchain-based ETFs in the past, but none have made it this far before.