Bitcoin ETF History in Canada: First Approvals and How It Changed Global Crypto Investing

The world’s first Bitcoin ETF didn’t launch in New York. It didn’t even launch in Europe. It hit the Toronto Stock Exchange on February 18, 2021 - and it changed everything.

Before that day, if you wanted to invest in Bitcoin through a regulated, tax-advantaged account, you had two choices: buy Bitcoin directly and manage your own wallet (with all the security risks), or try to trade Bitcoin futures through complicated, high-fee products that didn’t even track the real price of Bitcoin. Canada solved that problem - and did it faster than any other country.

How the Purpose Bitcoin ETF Broke the Mold

The Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC) was created by Toronto-based fund manager Purpose Investments Inc., led by CEO Som Seif. Unlike anything that came before it, this ETF didn’t use futures, options, or derivatives. It bought actual Bitcoin - the real thing - and held it in secure cold storage. That meant every share of BTCC was backed by real Bitcoin on the blockchain, not a bet on its future price.

This wasn’t just a new product. It was a new kind of access. For the first time, everyday Canadians could buy Bitcoin through their Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) or Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) - the same accounts they used for stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. No crypto exchanges. No private keys. No worrying about losing a seed phrase.

Market Reaction: A Surge No One Expected

The response was explosive. In the first 48 hours, investors traded nearly $400 million worth of BTCC shares. By the end of its first month, the fund had over $1 billion in assets under management. That made it the fastest-growing ETF in history at the time.

By the end of its first week, Bitcoin ETFs in Canada - including the Evolve Bitcoin ETF, which launched the very next day - had collectively traded close to C$1 billion and gathered over C$600 million in assets. TD Securities called it the most actively traded ETFs in Canada during that week.

Why did it work so well? Because the structure worked. Unlike closed-end funds that often trade at big premiums or discounts to their actual value, the ETF’s creation and redemption mechanism kept the price tightly aligned with Bitcoin’s real value. Within three days, the premium to net asset value was just 0.2%. That’s precision.

Why Canada Got There First

The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) didn’t wait for permission from Washington. They didn’t overcomplicate it. They looked at the product, reviewed the custody solution, confirmed the transparency, and said yes. Their approval gave the fund legitimacy - not just as a financial product, but as something regulated, audited, and protected under Canadian securities law.

That’s the key difference between Canada and the U.S. at the time. While Canada approved a spot Bitcoin ETF - one that holds actual Bitcoin - the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) didn’t approve anything like it until October 2021. And even then, the first U.S. Bitcoin ETF, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), only tracked Bitcoin futures, not the underlying asset. That meant investors were exposed to the risks of futures markets - contango, roll yields, and pricing gaps - not the real price of Bitcoin.

Canada didn’t just lead. It set the standard.

The Ripple Effect Around the World

After Canada’s success, other countries took notice. The structure of the Purpose Bitcoin ETF became the blueprint. When the U.S. finally approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024, the design mirrored Canada’s: direct custody, transparent pricing, and eligibility for retirement accounts. Even in Europe, where Bitcoin ETFs had existed for years as exchange-traded products (ETPs), regulators started asking: why didn’t we do this the Canadian way?

Som Seif put it simply: "We solved the customer problem. We built the infrastructure. And now others are using what we created."

By February 2024, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF had over $2 billion in assets under management. It wasn’t just popular - it was reliable. It tracked Bitcoin’s price with minimal drift. It stayed liquid. It kept fees low. And it gave millions of people, from students to retirees, a safe, simple way to own Bitcoin.

What This Meant for Crypto Adoption

Before the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, institutional investors stayed away from Bitcoin. Why? Because they couldn’t hold it in their existing portfolios. They couldn’t report it on their balance sheets. They couldn’t meet fiduciary standards.

After it launched, everything changed. Pension funds, endowments, and family offices started asking their advisors: "Can we get Bitcoin through an ETF?" The answer was now yes - and it was regulated, audited, and backed by real assets.

It wasn’t just about money. It was about legitimacy. When a major financial regulator like the OSC says, "This is safe, this is transparent, this belongs in your portfolio," it shifts the entire conversation. Bitcoin went from being seen as a risky tech experiment to a legitimate asset class.

What Happened After

Canada didn’t stop with one ETF. Evolve, 3iQ, and others followed with their own spot Bitcoin ETFs. The market kept growing. By 2025, over $5 billion in Bitcoin ETF assets were held in Canadian registered accounts. Retail investors didn’t need to learn how to use Coinbase or Trust Wallet. They just opened their brokerage app, typed in BTCC, and bought in.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and other countries scrambled to catch up. The SEC’s delay cost American investors years of access. When they finally got spot Bitcoin ETFs in 2024, they were using the same structure Canada proved worked.

Canada didn’t just approve a Bitcoin ETF. It created the model the world would copy.

Why It Still Matters Today

Five years later, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF remains one of the largest spot Bitcoin ETFs globally. Its success proved that regulated, physically-backed crypto ETFs aren’t just possible - they’re scalable, secure, and preferred by investors.

It showed that financial innovation doesn’t require breaking rules. Sometimes, it just requires seeing the same problem differently. While others saw Bitcoin as too risky, too new, too volatile, Canada saw it as an asset that deserved the same access as gold, oil, or tech stocks.

Today, if you’re in Canada and you want to own Bitcoin without the hassle, you don’t need to think twice. You just buy BTCC. And that’s because Canada said yes - before anyone else dared to.