The first regulator approved Bitcoin Futures Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) in the USA has launched with a healthy volume on its very first day. Over $1 billion of natural volume was recorded on the futures ETF with 24 million BITO shares changing hands. While a futures ETF is not controlled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and got permission relatively easily, it does set the date for a big win for the sector in the US and indirectly the world in the next few weeks.
ProShares became the first company in the USA to develop and deploy a futures ETF. The regulatory clarity or lack thereof remained a pressing issue for even a futures ETF let alone a direct Bitcoin ETF. But now, as both the SEC and CFTC are relaxing rules for ETFs in the USA, the crypto sector is seeing newfound price booms and trading activity.
ProShares launched the ETF on the New York Stock Exchange with an opening price of $40.8 on Tuesday and has seen considerable activity there. The daily close was at around $41.94 for Tuesday. It continued its upwards movement today as well, currently changing hands at around $43.9 which represents a 7% price increase from the launch price just yesterday. Today’s new all-time high of $67k also positively impacted the BITO index.
Bitcoin bull, Bloomberg analyst and proponent of the sector Eric Balchunas tweeted:
If we don’t exclude ETFs where their Day One volume was literally one pre-planned giant investor or BYOA (not natural), it still ranks #2 overall. Here’s that list. The reason some of these shouldn’t be included IMO is they don’t really represent grassroots interest. pic.twitter.com/wmZiHnpFrS
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 19, 2021
Regarding the ETFs that performed better than BITO, i.e. the BlackRock Carbon Emissions Readiness Test, Balchunas stated that the volume unnatural as it was pumped by one big investor and thus cannot be counted as a direct rival of the BITO shares. Therefore, the BITO price increase earlier today was the single biggest “natural volume” ever recorded by an ETF in the history of the market.
Based on the current performance, if BITO can sustain its incredible start, it will soon be considered a powerhouse in the ETF market when it comes to annual turnovers. However, it is still too early to predict with certainty that this is going to be the case. Traders should always keep an eye on multiple facets of the crypto markets to have an idea about the short-term and long-term progress of the digital currencies and their various derivatives.
Image Source: pixabay.com
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