Bitcoin broke the $ 60.000 price barrier over the weekend for the first time since April. That price movement was attributed to the expectation that the SEC would give the green light to an exchange-traded Bitcoin futures fund. That expectation became a reality on Monday.
Here we are!
On Tuesday ProShares, an exchange firm, will list an ETF that tracks Bitcoin futures on the New York Stock Exchange. It will be listed as "BITO," the company said.
"BITO will open bitcoin exposure to a large segment of investors who have a brokerage account and are comfortable buying stocks and ETFs, but don't want to deal with the hassle and learning curve of creating another account with. a cryptocurrency provider, ”ProShares CEO Michael Sapir said in a statement.
Bitcoin stands at $ 61.910 at the time of writing, close to the all-time high of $ 64.800 reached on April 14.
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It's been a tumultuous year for cryptocurrency. Bitcoin's price began to explode last September, going from just under $ 12.000 at the beginning of the month to over $ 60.000 in April. A wave of bad news, including Elon Musk reneging on his general support for Bitcoin and a crackdown on cryptocurrency services in China, caused the price to drop significantly in May. Bitcoin briefly dropped below $ 30.000 in July.
Futures are contracts that commit investors to buy or sell a commodity at a certain price on a certain date. For example, you could commit to buying 1 Bitcoin for $ 100.000 over 5 years. If the price of a Bitcoin on that date was $ 200.000, you would have made money. If the price of a Bitcoin on that date was $ 50.000, you would have lost money.
What does all this mean?
A futures ETF is noticeably different from a standard exchange-traded fund, which Bitcoin enthusiasts have lobbied for. A typical ETF would give investors exposure to the underlying asset, in this case Bitcoin, while a Futures ETF allows investors to speculate on the price of the asset. Policy makers have argued in the past that cryptocurrencies are too prone to fraud and manipulation to be approved for real Bitcoin-backed ETFs.
Regardless, the cryptocurrencies built into the SEC framework are evidently sufficient to power Bitcoin and many other currencies. Bitcoin's current price has risen 8% from this time last week. Ethereum, the most widely used cryptocurrency, is up 6,5% from a week ago.
