ASX enters metaverse with new BetaShares ETF

Australia’s first metaverse exchange traded fund (ETF) has launched on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today. 

With the ticker code MTAV, the BetaShares Metaverse ETF provides investors with exposure to a portfolio of global companies leveraging Web3 technologies, that are involved in building, developing and operating the metaverse.

The BetaShares Metaverse ETF Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) defines the metaverse as “a digital reality that combines aspects from digital and physical lives such as social media, online gaming, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to allow individuals to interact in a vast, immersive, three-dimensional virtual environment accessed via the internet.”

Eligible companies are screened for their relevance and exposure to the metaverse economy, with reference to categories including 3D modelling, AI, advertising revenue, blockchain, infrastructure-as-a-service, live entertainment and licencing, token-based gaming, VR and AR.

According to BetaShares CEO Alex Vynokur, “As the range of technologies underpinning the Metaverse evolves and user growth continues, this secular trend is expected to revolutionise the way we engage with sport, live music and other ways of staying connected.”

Vynokur believes that the Metaverse will be a powerful megatrend expected to affect personal, professional and community connections.

“While still in the early stages of evolution, the Metaverse has the potential to be one of the biggest secular growth trends of the coming decades. We are proud to provide investors with access to this investment opportunity. This innovative new fund will form part of our leading suite of thematic funds that offer investors exposure to the megatrends that are changing the world around us,” he said.

Recognising that the metaverse is still an emerging concept, with Web3 technologies still at a nascent stage, the PDS considers metaverse-related businesses as speculative in nature.

“The risks that the Metaverse may present to companies seeking to profit rom it may not emerge until the technologies are more widely available and used. Future regulatory developments could also affect the viability of the Metaverse and the business prospects of Metaverse-related companies,” according to the PDS.

“The Metaverse may never exist on a scale that provides identifiable or material economic benefit to many of all of such companies.”

While the BetaShares Metaverse ETF is the first Australian ETF with a specific focus on Web3, BetaShares also has an ETF for video games and esports (ASX:GAME), which many consider the Web3 sandbox.

GAME offers access to a portfolio of leading gaming companies including Activision Blizzard, Nintendo, Tencent Holdings, among others.

BetaShares launched its first ETF in Australia over a decade ago and now manages over $22 billion in assets across over 70 funds.