America’s First-Ever Bitcoin ETF Sees $570 Million Success on Debut

ProShares’ BITO bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund has generated massive gains on its first day of trading, attracting a total of $570 million in assets, according to reports on October 20, 2021.

ProShares Bitcoin ETF Hits the Ground Running

After several years of rejection and pushback from financial regulators in the United States, the country finally welcomed its first-ever bitcoin exchange-traded fund this week and the financial instrument has hit record highs on its first day of trading.

Per sources close to the matter the ProShares BITO futures-based bitcoin exchange-traded fund attracted a total of $570 million in assets on its first day of trading due to strong demand from mostly retail investors.

Notably, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF which went live on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, with a seed capital of just $20 million, made history by selling off 6.4 million BITO worth $264 million to investors within just 20 minutes of its launch.

Strong Bullish Signal

In the same vein, the fund’s trading volume reportedly hit the $1 billion trading volume mark on the first day, making it the second-most heavily traded new ETF after the SPDR Gold Shares fund in Wall Street’s history. 

Cryptocurrency market participants and observers have hinted that BITO’s success on its debut is a strong bullish signal for the industry, as the approval of a bitcoin ETF by the SEC has been a highly anticipated event.

“This is probably going to be what we all expected, which is it’s an access vehicle for certain players in the marketplace,” said Dave Nadig, ETF Trends’ chief chief investment officer and director of research, adding that the new futures-based bitcoin ETF would indirectly  attract more investors to crypto.

While a vast array of crypto market participants, including Michael Sonnenshein the CEO of Grayscale, firmly believe that a futures-based bitcoin ETF has no real value to offer to investors, others have argued that an SEC’s approval of a bitcoin ETF (in whatever form) is a strong indication that the industry is rapidly maturing and as such, should be celebrated.

Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX crypto exchange has described ProShares ETF debut as “incredibly bullish,” adding “there’s been really positive sentiment around the ETF in particular.”

At press time, the bitcoin price is hovering around $63,840, with a market cap of $1.20 trillion according to CoinMarketCap.