First Bitcoin Futures ETF ‘BITO’ Tops $1B Trading Volume – BTC Close to All-Time High
The first ever Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) launched in the United States and already broke records on Tuesday, capturing close to $1 billion in total volume.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy exchange-traded fund’s (ETF) trading volume topped $1 billion on its first day, ranking the investment vehicle as one of the top ETF launches in history.
As of 4:27 p.m. ET, after the close of U.S. stock markets on Tuesday, trading volume in the ProShares ETF (BITO) had reached 24.1 million shares, worth more than $1 billion based on the closing price.
The fund’s price rose to $41.94 at the close, up 4.9% from the initial $40 net asset value.
James Seyffart tweeted:
“Looks like the final tally is gonna be right around ~$990 million in trading for BITO on its first day trading.”
Looks like the final tally is gonna be right around ~$990 million in trading for $BITO on its first day trading. https://t.co/KCoqOtRKV0
Eric Balchunas, the senior ETF analyst for Bloomberg, also tweeted about the action the Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF saw on Tuesday.
$BITO just about at $1b in total volume today (curr $993m but trades still trickling in). Easily the biggest Day One of any ETF in terms of 'natural' volume. It also traded more than 99.5% of all ETFs (incl some bigs like $DIA, $ARKK, $SLV). It def defied our expectations.. pic.twitter.com/rWIPSAJboT
“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.”
While the Proshares bitcoin ETF had a decent day, bitcoin (BTC) spot markets also rampaged on October 19. BTC’s market cap swelled over $1.2 trillion on Tuesday and there’s been $42.4 billion in global trade volume throughout the day.
Balchunas stressed that the result of today’s first bitcoin ETF performance in the U.S., “makes life that much harder for the next in line ETFs to succeed.” He added:
“Every day counts [because] once an ETF gets [known] as ‘the one’ and has tons of [liquidity], it’s virtually imposs to steal (see SPY, GLD).
What does this mean for assets? My guess is about half of this volume will end up as flows next two days. Looking at $750 by end of week, something like that. Tomorrow’s volume will be interesting and how much it comes down to Earth vs high.”
Bitcoin Price Nears All-time High
The new ETF’s debut came as bitcoin’s price surged Tuesday to a six-month high, closing in on the all-time high near $65,000 set in April.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $63,941, with 2,4% gains on a daily chart.
ProShares ETF is the first of its kind the U.S. and offers investors the opportunity to gain exposure to returns of bitcoin with the ease of buying an ETF in a brokerage account.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the ETF on Friday, and several other pending ETF proposals could win approval from the SEC later this week.
The ProShares ETF is structured to invest in bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago-based CME, rather than investing in the cryptocurrency directly.
So the ETF by itself won’t introduce any new demand for bitcoin. However, traders might buy more bitcoin as they look to hedge against the futures price or take advantage of pricing disparities.
