An upcoming Korean Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that tracks the price of Bitcoin has been announced by asset management firm Korea Investment Management,  a subsidiary of Korea Investment Holdings Co (KIH).Started in 2002, KIH has more than $21B USD under management.ETFs track an index, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index fund.Unlike mutual funds, an ETF trades like a common stock on a stock exchange.The new ETF will track the price of bitcoin as it trades on Korbit, the largest of South Korea’s bitcoin exchanges, and will be traded on the sole securities exchange operator in South Korea, Korea Exchange (KRX).Investors can trade in the KRX securities markets through a trading account at one of many security companies with KRX membership.In 2012 the very first regulated bitcoin fund launched.An ETF simply named “the Bitcoin Fund,” which is traded exclusively on the Hedge Fund Marketplace platform, Exante.The fund achieved the biggest single investment vehicle gain in world history, with a 4,847% return, when Bitcoin's price spiked at the end of 2013.

EXANTE is under the jurisdiction of the European regulator MiFID.In July 2013, the Winklevoss twins filed their application for an ETF in the US.“The investment objective of the Trust is for the Shares to reflect the performance of the price of Bitcoins, as measured by the Winklevoss IndexSM ("Winkdex®"), less the Trust's expenses.” “The Shares represent units of fractional undivided beneficial interest in and ownership of the Trust and are expected to be traded under the ticker symbol "COIN" on the NASDAQ.” - NASDAQ The twins have been patiently waiting for regulators to approve the fund ever since, and are keeping active with their bitcoin price index, the Winkdex, and launching their own Exchange on Wall Street, Gemini.armory bitcoin unlimitedThe island of Jersey saw it’s first fund in 2014, the Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment fund (GABI).bitcoin cycler

“Jersey aspires to be the leader in the digital currency revolution by playing a crucial role in the bitcoin ecosystem regulation,” states the company site.GABI is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.Earlier this year an ETF from Barry Silbert called the Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) began trading in the US.bitcoin miner ghsThe security is trading on OTC Markets' top marketplace, OTCQX, under the trading symbol GBTC.aldi bitcoinBIT is sponsored by Grayscale Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCC).ethereum nxtIn their latest quarterly report, BIT reported a market value of $35,575,920 USD, owning 135,677 bitcoins.anzahl bitcoin adressen48 thousand of these bitcoins were famously picked up when Silbert won them at an auction in Dec 2014.

The bitcoins were seized during the Silk Road investigation, then auctioned off by the US Marshal's Service.There are also efforts to launch full Bitcoin ETFs on the horizon.In Europe, the City of London based bitcoin exchange Coinfloor announced plans to launch a bitcoin ETF last year, and is already billing itself as “the world's most liquid Pound Sterling to Bitcoin order book.” Aside from ETFs, bitcoin Exchange Traded Notes (ETN) are also available for investors looking to gain exposure to the digital currency.While both bitcoin ETFs and ETNs are designed to track the prices of bitcoin, an ETN is more like a bond.An ETN is a senior, unsecured, unsubordinated debt security issued by an underwriting bank.Similar to other debt securities, ETNs have a maturity date and are backed only by the credit of the issuer.If an ETN’s issuer were to receive a credit downgrade, shares of the ETN would likely experience a downturn, unrelated to the price of bitcoin that it is tracking.The first ETN made public for bitcoin is the Bitcoin Tracker One, a bitcoin note launched in May this year, available in 179 countries.

The note is managed by Sweden based XBT Provider, a public Limited Liability Company traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.Bitcoin Tracker One is available on the NASDAQ/OMX in Stockholm under the ticker COINXBT.There is a key advantage to purchasing bitcoin tracking ETFs and ETNs.The underlying asset, bitcoin, is largely traded on unregulated exchanges.If a Bitcoin ETF trades on a major exchange, investors could simply buy shares of the ETF at any brokerage.Regulation also allows for institutional investors to gain access to bitcoin markets, as they are largely precluded from trading unregulated securities.A clear downside is the the fees.To invest in the BIT, for example, investors pay premium prices for free trading shares, as well as an annual two percent administration and safekeeping fee.“That charge is steeper than most ETFs”, said Eric Mustin, vice president of ETF Trading Solutions at WallachBeth Capital.The annual fee for the SPDR Gold Shares ETF is only 0.4%.However, Grayscale representative Barry Silbert justified that the annual fee is comparative to the 1 percent charge most bitcoin platforms and exchanges levy.

While it is often said that bitcoin is a volatile and risky investment, there are many more volatile ETFs available.In a recent Bloomberg article two ETFs are referenced; the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (GREK) and the Deutsche X-Trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (ASHR).After the recent collapse of Chinese stocks and the Greek crisis, both funds' volatility more than tripled in a relative short amount of time.One year ago, I began a journey to invest in bitcoins for my retirement account.My thinking was that bitcoins are clearly a long-term investment and by using my asset allocation model, I could provide room for them as part of my alternative investment allocation.At that time, there was much discussion about making the purchase of bitcoins easier for the regular investor but there were few options, especially for those looking to place them into qualified accounts for retirement.There was well publicized talk of an exchange-traded fund, ETF, from the Winklevoss twins that would allow investors to gain access to bitcoins through the traditional markets.

Even the simple act of trying to purchase bitcoins at that time was clunky and cumbersome.One year later, we see many viable options to buy bitcoins.Whether through Coinbase or other outlets, including itBit (the first bitcoin exchange that New York granted a banking license to and has Sheila Bair and Bill Bradley on their board), the ability to buy bitcoins with funds accessible through your existing bank accounts isn't only possible, but elegantly done and user friendly.However, that doesn’t address the ability to place them into qualified retirement accounts, or even any of the traditional brokerage accounts.After doing my search (which was documented here on MarketWatch), I decided a year ago to invest retirement assets into the Bitcoin Investment Trust.It was a trust that came with many stipulations.Primarily, it was only available to accredited investors and had to be housed in an account that “locked up” the investment for a one-year holding period.At the end of the holding period, the intent was that the Trust would begin trading on the OTCQX exchange and you would be able to freely trade those assets if you desired.

That “lock up” period allowed me to watch my account value lose more than half of its value as the price of bitcoin went from $600 to its current levels in the mid $200’s.Well it’s a little over a year since I began my journey to find a bitcoin investment for my retirement account and unlike the Winklevoss ETF, Bitcoin Investment Trust is now trading on the OTCQX exchange under ticker symbol: GBTC, +3.34% Not only will I have the opportunity to sell my holdings, but I could buy more if I wanted.In fact, any investor can now buy into GBTC for whatever account they’d like.As it states on the Greyscale (managers of the GBTC) website, “Eligible shares are quoted on the OTCQX, the top marketplace operated by OTC Markets under the Alternative Reporting Standards.Investors can buy and sell shares through most traditional brokerage accounts at prices dictated by the market.” In theory, the bitcoin fund functions much like the SPDR Gold ETF GLD, +0.43% in that it reflects the price of bitcoin, just as the gold ETF simply reflects the underlying value of gold bullion.

The underlying value of each share of GBTC is worth a 10th of the current value of bitcoin.So if bitcoin is trading at $300, the underlying value of one share of GBTC should be approximately $30.However, as with other similar investments, the bitcoin fund can trade higher or lower based upon investor interest and demand for the investment.Another caveat for GBTC is that it comes with a hefty management fee that needs to be figured into the underlying value as well.With the GBTC, that fee is a whopping 2% versus the 0.04% expense ratio for the SPDR Gold ETF(managers of GBTC defend the fee citing the need for safekeeping and current trading expenses in the bitcoin markets).The exchange version of the Bitcoin Investment Trust has been trading for one month now.It’s currently very thinly traded and although you can buy shares of it for your investment account, whether retirement or other, it’s average daily volume over that time has been slightly above 2,000 shares (compared to the SPDR Gold fund which trades over 5 million shares on an average day).