Bitcoin ETN, certificate or coin: the difference

Anyone who wants Bitcoin in a securities account has three routes available in Germany: the coin itself through a crypto exchange, an exchange-traded security tracking Bitcoin, that is an ETN, and a certificate issued by a bank. All three move with the same price. What separates them is the question of who owns the Bitcoin, who owes you the money if things go wrong, and which section of the tax code the tax office applies to your gain.

The price is the smallest difference. Bitcoin traded at $85,543 and €76,040 on Wednesday morning, down 0.43 percent on the previous day, according to CoinGecko as of 03:00 on Wednesday. That figure sits inside all three products. The gap opens up afterwards: in the tax treatment, in the costs, and in the question of what happens if the provider becomes insolvent.

What separates a Bitcoin certificate from a Bitcoin ETN

Both are debt securities, both trade on an exchange, and both sit in an ordinary securities account. They are still two different things.

An ETN (exchange traded note) is an exchange-traded debt security that tracks exactly one underlying, here the Bitcoin price, and that is backed by real Bitcoin at the common European providers. The term is usually open-ended, there is no leverage, and the ratio to the underlying stays the same over the years, less the ongoing fee.