ETF Securities chairman Graham Tuckwell is in pole position to launch Australia’s first retail managed fund to invest directly in bitcoin or ether, and says he has been talking to the regulator about the product since at least 2017.

The former Rich Lister, who famously floated the world’s first gold-backed exchange traded fund almost 20 years ago, said ETF Securities had filed a product disclosure statement with the corporate regulator and would imminently launch a fund invested directly in cryptocurrencies on the Chi-X exchange.