As of this Tuesday, October 18, 2021, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) has made history, becoming the first ETF based on Bitcoin futures (BTC) to be traded on the NYSE American exchange. This first day of trading was in fact completely insane, and this Bitcoin derivative has already broken old records for traditional assets.
570 million dollars invested in the Bitcoin ETF on the 1st day
ProShares has managed the feat of being the first to get the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to relent after years of delaying approval of a Bitcoin ETF.
And the relief from the long wait was strongly felt on the first day of trading of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Indeed, by the close of the Wall Street exchange, BITO was able to attract a total of $570 million in investment to itself.
The Bitcoin ETF started its first trading session with only $20 million in initial capital, an influx of $550,000 million in just a few hours.
Matt Hougan, the CIO (chief investment officer) of Bitwise Asset Management interviewed by CoinDesk, analyzes this strong inflow of money into BITO on its first day of trading:
“(It) suggests that there is a large amount of capital that is still excluded from the cryptocurrency market simply because it is still difficult to access. That will change over time, and that capital will enter the market. That’s a pretty bullish signal for the long term.”
Nearly $1 billion in trading generated by BITO Bitcoin
ProsShares’ Bitcoin futures ETF will also have managed to break a record in its first on the markets. Indeed, it generated more than $993 million in trading volume on its day 1.
As Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, points out, it was the ETF with the most “natural” volume on its first day. Only an ETF backed by giant fund BlackRock did slightly better, but because a huge institutional investor was already ready to buy it, according to the analyst.
Even though this first Bitcoin ETF has finally entered the US market exchanges, it may not convince everyone with its usefulness. For example, billionaire Marck Cuban explained that he would rather “buy bitcoin directly” than buy a BTC ETF.
