ProShares BTC ETF to List on NYSE on Tuesday
- Following several years of effort, ProShares will finally be able to list its Bitcoin Strategy ETF on the NYSE under the ticker “BITO”.
- Investors in traditional financial markets, who had concerns about investing into BTC, will now have exposure to the largest crypto by market cap.
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ProShares’ futures-based Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the first of its kind in the U.S., will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Tuesday, the company said in a press release on 18 October.
According to the announcement, the new Bitcoin ETF — which is linked to BTC futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange — will be listed on NYSE on 19 October under the ticker “BITO”. While ProShares filed its application for the “Bitcoin Strategy ETF” this summer, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accepted the registration request on Friday. The CEO of ProShares, Michael L. Sapir, said in a statement:
“BITO will continue the legacy of ETFs that provide investors convenient, liquid access to an asset class. 1993 is remembered for the first equity ETF, 2002 for the first bond ETF, and 2004 for the first gold ETF. 2021 will be remembered for the first cryptocurrency-linked ETF.”
The new ETF will provide investors who do not wish to create an account with a cryptocurrency provider, or own a BTC wallet, with exposure to the world’s largest crypto asset by market value. A large segment of investors who previously wished to trade BTC, but were concerned that many of the platforms were unregulated and subject to security risks, can now do so safely on the NYSE.
ProShares, however, are not the only ones that received the SEC’s approval for a BTC-linked ETF. Also on Friday, the regulator approved the application of Valkyrie’s Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which will be listed on NASDAQ. The SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler, had previously stated that funds linked to the futures market, rather than the underlying asset, were more likely to win regulatory approval.
- During an interview with FT, CEO Brian Armstrong said that before the lawsuit a SEC staff member had said that all crypto except BTC was security, and should be delisted.
- When asked how he came to that conclusion, the SEC staff member reportedly said “we’re not going to explain it to you, you need to delist every asset other that Bitcoin”.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong appears on stage at the 2014 TechCrunch Disrupt Europe/London, at The Old Billingsgate on October 21, 2014 in London, England. Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for TechCrunch
- A federal judge ruled that the sale of XRP through exchanges and algorithms did not qualify as selling securities, which could have a major impact on several SEC lawsuits.
- The institutional sale of the token, however, did violate federal securities laws, and the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple will have to go to trial.
- Binance had filed a complaint against a 17 June SEC press release, claiming that the regulator had made “misleading” statements that could have tainted the jury pool.
- The presiding judge rejected the complaint by saying that it was not the court’s mandate to “wordsmith” public statements, and that it was not clear if the statements had any effect on the case.