Lucy Jane The bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) mania has returned with many new applications and increased institutional investor capital inflows.
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, observed a surge in the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) on June 26. This fund invests in Bitcoin futures.
The fund’s highest weekly inflow in a year was $65.3 million, and its total assets surpassed $1 billion.
BITO was the first BTC-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) established in the United States and is one of the most popular among institutional investors.
Balchunas asserted that BITO has “pretty much tracked Bitcoin perfectly,” lagging spot prices by 1.05% per year and charging a fee of 0.95%.
According to ProShares, the BITO mutual fund has gained 59.6% since the beginning of 2023. Since BlackRock filed for its own Bitcoin ETF on June 15, interest in Bitcoin derivatives has increased.
According to the Deribit crypto options exchange, open interest (OI) for Bitcoin futures has increased since last week. It is currently $319 million as of the 25th of June, an increase of approximately 30% from last week.
The OI is a measure of the total number of unexecuted futures contracts.
Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, has benefited from the resurgence in ETF trading and the resulting BTC price increase.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has traded at a substantial discount to spot BTC prices for months, is moving in the correct direction as this disparity narrows.
According to Coinglass, the premium, or discount, for Grayscale is -31.2%. In December, it hit a low of -49%.
Uncertainty remains about whether the Securities and Exchange Commission will authorize a Bitcoin spot ETF, but a new wave of filings has followed BlackRock’s.
WisdomTree filed with the SEC for the third time to establish a Bitcoin spot ETF, and just hours later, Invesco resubmitted its application for a similar product.
Nate Geraci, president of ETF Store, tweeted on June 25 a list of ETF issuers that he believes will file or refile for a spot Bitcoin ETF based on previous filings. Geraci mentioned First Trust, VanEck, Global X, Fidelity, and the “dark horse,” Schwab.