First Bitcoin Futures ETF Registers $1,700,000,000 in Trading Volume Last Week: Bloomberg Analyst

October 30, 2023 The Daily Hodl

Bitcoin ETF fever returns: ‘Biggest’ inflow to ProShares’ BITO in a year

June 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BITO

ProShares’ BITO Bitcoin ETF saw a weekly inflow of $65 million as institutional investors have seemingly regained their mojo for Bitcoin futures.

Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) fervor is back with a raft of new applications and an increase in capital inflows from institutional investors.

On June 26, a surge of inflows to the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) — a Bitcoin futures fund — was observed by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.

The fund had its largest weekly inflow in a year at $65.3 million with its assets topping $1 billion.

BITO was the first BTC-linked ETF in the United States and is one of the most popular among institutional investors.

Balchunas claimed BITO “pretty much has tracked Bitcoin perfectly,” lagging spot prices by 1.05% annually and has a fee of 0.95%.

The Bitcoin Futures ETF $BITO had its biggest weekly inflow in a year as assets top $1b again. It also traded half a billion in shares on Friday, which it's only done about 5 times before via @SirYappityyapp pic.twitter.com/Xrq0lUaaTO
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 25, 2023

The BITO fund has made a 59.6% gain since the start of 2023 according to ProShares. There’s been an uptick in Bitcoin derivatives interest across the board since BlackRock filed for its own Bitcoin ETF on June 15.

According to the Deribit crypto options exchange, Bitcoin futures open interest (OI) has surged since last week. It is currently $319 million as of June 25, up around 30% from the same period last week.

OI is a measure of the total number of outstanding futures contracts that have not been settled.

*BTC futures OI over the past month. Source:* *Deribit*

The resurgence in ETF trading and the resultant BTC price pump has also been good news for the world’s largest crypto asset manager, Grayscale. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has been trading at a massive discount to spot BTC prices for months, is heading in the right direction as that gap diminishes.

According to Coinglass, the Grayscale premium, also known as its discount, is -31.2%. It fell as low as -49% in December.

It remains unclear if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a spot Bitcoin ETF, but the race is now on as a new wave of filings has followed BlackRock’s.

WisdomTree, for the third time, filed with the SEC to create a spot Bitcoin ETF, just hours later Invesco renewed its application for a similar product.

On June 25, ETF Store President Nate Geraci tweeted his list of ETF issuers that he “would keep an eye on” as he believes they will file or refile for a spot Bitcoin ETF based on past filings. Geraci named First Trust, VanEck, Global X, Fidelity, and what he called the “dark horse,” Schwab.

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Crypto stocks surge: Coinbase up 69%, MicroStrategy up 74% since lows

January 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitfarms

Crypto-related stocks, ETFs and tokens have all surged in price so far in 2023 despite experts expecting the Federal Reserve to continue hiking interest rates.

The share price of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has surged by 69% since its all time lows and other crypto-related stocks including business intelligence firm MicroStrategy have recorded similar jumps with green candles all around since the start of 2023.

The share price of Coinbase fell as low as $31.95 on Jan. 6, before shooting up to $54.14 by the close of trading on Jan. 17.

*Coinbase’s share price for the last month. Source: Yahoo Finance*

The rising share price will likely be accompanied by a huge sigh of relief for Coinbase executives after a challenging 2022 saw it cut 20% of its workforce and decide to wind down its Japanese operations. Despite the surge, COIN remains more than 84% below its all time high.

Other crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy and digital payments company Block Inc. have also posted strong gains in the new year.

MicroStrategy's share price has increased to nearly $236 from a low of just over $135 on Dec. 29 — representing an increase of over 74% — while Jack Dorsey’s Block has seen its share price increase by a muted but still respectable 27%, after rebounding from a low of under $59 on Dec. 28 to over $75.

The rebound has been even more dramatic for crypto mining stocks. Bitfarms and Marathon Digital Holdings recorded surges of 140% and 120% respectively throughout the first two weeks of the year.

Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also rebounded to a lesser degree with Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) more than doubling its price from a low of just over $4 on Dec. 28 to over $8.

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) jumped from over $10 on Dec. 28 to a current price of around $13 — increasing by just under a third.

Even Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has managed to regain some of its 2022 losses, after increasing from a low of $7.76 on Dec. 28 to a current price of $11.72, a 51% increase.

While the trust is designed to mirror the price of Bitcoin (BTC) it often trades at a discount or premium to the value of its underlying holdings and is now sitting at a discount of just over 36% after having traded at over a 45% discount on Dec. 28.

Some pundits believe Bitcoin in particular has skyrocketed on the back of the positive inflation figures from the United States released on Jan. 12 — having increased in price by over 17% since then — but it is interesting to note that Dec. 28 seemed to represent a market bottom across many cryptocurrencies and stocks.

Total #crypto market cap is back over 1 trillion dollars!!! pic.twitter.com/wS4N9qjA4G
— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) January 17, 2023

While the recent surge in crypto-related stocks is bound to be a huge relief to those who have invested in them, it is worth noting that many of these companies have a long way to go to return to thier all-time highs, as highlighted by a Jan. 10 tweet from financial advisor Genevieve Roch-Decter.

Crypto stocks over the last year:

Voyager -99.7%
Silvergate -90.8%
Marathon Digital -83.1%
Coinbase -82.3%
HIVE Blockchain -81.3%
MicroStrategy -63.9%
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) January 10, 2023

Bitcoin ETFs and Open Interest From BTC Futures, Options Follow Crypto Economy’s Spot Market Decline

July 15, 2022 Bitcoin.com

US Fintech Firm Acorns Adds Crypto Exposure Investing via Proshares Bitcoin ETF

March 22, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Valkyrie Files for ETF That Invests in Firms That Derive 50% Revenue From Bitcoin Mining Industry

January 26, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Bitcoin ETF Launch Hype Fades as Funds Slip in Value, BTC Futures Open Interest Down 38% in 2 Months

January 14, 2022 Bitcoin.com

First US Bitcoin ETF a ‘dud’ in 2021 as GBTC discount stays near record lows

December 30, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

There’s little to smile about when it comes to institutional participation in Bitcoin at the end of the year, data shows.

Bitcoin (BTC) institutional demand is conspicuously wanting at the end of the year as data flags the “underperformance” of the United States’ first Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF).

As noted by markets commentator Holger Zschaepitz on Dec. 29, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) is now trading at nearly 30% below its launch price.

Anticlimax rounds out 2021 for ProShares ETF

In a sign of the times regarding Bitcoin sentiment, the hype that accompanied BITO’s launch in Q3 has died down considerably.

Going from record-breaking volume on its first day to its current state, the ETF has even underperformed the embattled Bitcoin spot price in 2021.

“The first Bitcoin futures ETF in the US was a dud, at least this year,” Zschaepitz commented.

*ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) vs. BTC/USD normalized chart. Source: Holger Zschaepitz/Twitter*

Meanwhile, as Cointelegraph reported, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) continues to trade at its biggest-ever discount to Bitcoin spot price, or net asset value.

GBTC’s conversion to an ETF, slated for next year, meanwhile, depends on the tone of U.S. regulators regarding spot-based products, these are yet to debut.

*GBTC price vs. holdings vs. GBTC premium chart. Source: Coinglass*

Eerie all-time highs persist in stocks

While detractors describe the GBTC discount as “very concerning,” activity from investors themselves does not unanimously point to apathy when it comes to Bitcoin.

Morgan Stanley upped its GBTC allocation this month and last in a sign that longer-term sentiment remains strong.

As 2021 draws to a close, the $SPX is nearing a 92-year log-scale resistance line, which has the potential to be a formidable barrier given that it is based off of the index's 1929 and 2000 peaks. ~ Reuters pic.twitter.com/khK1e09vCA
— PiQ  (@PriapusIQ) December 28, 2021

Macro markets, meanwhile, display curious characteristics. The S&P 500 is at record highs, challenging a trendline that has marked topside resistance since its inauguration almost 100 years ago.

Below the surface, however, all is not as it seems, warnings revealed this week.

Crypto Giant Grayscale Now Manages Nearly $60,000,000,000 in Total Assets

November 13, 2021 The Daily Hodl

Proshares Bitcoin futures fund in top 2% of all ETFs for volume

November 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin etf

While BTIO is going from strength to strength with a total of $1.4 billion worth of inflows since late October, one expert thinks that VanEck’s Bitcoin spot ETF has a 200-1 chance of being approved by the SEC.

Since its launch on Oct. 19 Proshares’ Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been a popular choice with traders, rising to the top 2% of all ETFs in terms of total trading volume.

Bloomberg’s Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted on Nov. 11 that the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) had $400 million worth of shares traded yesterday, with its average volume consistently putting it in the top 2% of all ETFs.

$BITO and $BTF both had their biggest volume days in about two weeks. $BITO with a $400m traded, which is not only a ton but = 25% turnover in one day- indicating its usage as a trading tool. pic.twitter.com/ukDGeSEa6F
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 10, 2021

BITO has seen roughly $112.79 million combined inflows over the past nine days. While the figure pales in comparison to the first two days of the fund’s listing that saw $567.16 million and $489.51 million worth of inflows each, Baluchunas noted that “this kind of consistent flow-age is highly rare” for a newly launched ETF.

BITO launched on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 19 and has since accumulated more than $1.4 billion worth of assets under management (AUM). Investor appetite for the fund remains high although the price of BITO has failed to surge and is currently sitting at $42.3, which is slightly below its initial listing price around $43.2.g. Balchunas suggested that options volume may be the driving factor behind BITO at this stage.

There seems little hope of a Bitcoin ETF tracking the spot price being approved in the immediate future, with Balchunas suggesting that VanEck’s spot ETF would almost certainly be knocked back by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the Nov. 14 deadline. The analyst put the odds at a “bleak” 200-1.

The SEC has 100 hours left until they have to approve or deny the VanEck spot Bitcoin ETF (my guess is they drop it Friday after mkt close but who knows). While our odds of approval are a bleak 200-1 the denial statement could offer some clues as to when it could happen @JSeyff https://t.co/Y2n3qPAvIp
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 10, 2021

On Nov. 10, ProShares investment strategist Leks Gerlak told U.S. News & World Report that BITO should have no issues with reflecting the value of Bitcoin as futures contracts play a key role in determining its spot value:

“There is no single reference price for Bitcoin, and the trading price of Bitcoin varies from one exchange to another, often between 1% to 2%, and sometimes by 4% to 5%. Expert research on this topic finds that the Bitcoin futures market dominates the price discovery process.”

“Over the past few years, Bitcoin futures and Bitcoin have historically provided very similar returns. Both correlation and beta have been very close to one to Bitcoin,” he added.

BITO

Anticlimax rounds out 2021 for ProShares ETF

Eerie all-time highs persist in stocks

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