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The long wait for a Bitcoin futures exchange traded fund (ETF) in the United States was finally over yesterday as the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF started trading on a US exchange. At the end of the first day of trading, the ETF trading under the ticker symbol $BITO surpassed $1 billion in volumes.
This ETF has become the second most traded ETF on its first day. The number one position is held by the BlackRock US Carbon Transition Readiness ETF, which traded $1,161,734,000 in trading volumes on its first day.
Largest ETF in ‘Natural Volume
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While it ranks as the second ETF in terms of traded volumes on the first day, some analysts believe that it could as well take the first position.
Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst with Bloomberg, stated that the trading volumes of the $BITO ETF could be “easily the biggest day-one of any ETF in terms of ‘natural’ volume.” He noted that $BITO’s trading volumes were 95% higher than some of the other most popular ETFs such as $ARKK, $DIA and $SLV.
Balchunas stated that natural volumes represented that an ETF had “grassroots interest.” Most ETFs usually have seed capital, which is given by large investors, but the $BITO ETF did not receive any seed capital.
The $BITO ETF saw an incredible first day of trading. Its opening price was $40 and closed the day at $41.94 with around 24 million shares being traded. This represents a 4.85% price growth on the first day. Another BTC futures ETF is expected to debut trading this week.
Bitcoin Inches to Record Highs
Bitcoin (BTC/USD) has been responding positively to news of the ETF approval. The excitement created by this news has contributed to Bitcoin gaining by over 23% in the past two weeks. Besides, since the beginning of the month, the coin has soared from lows of below $41K to the current highs. Data from CoinGecko shows that Bitcoin has tested the six-month high of $64K, and is just $800 shy of creating a new all-time high.
With another ETF expected to debut this week, we could see the Bitcoin heading towards other record highs, and maybe the anticipated $100K could be achieved by the end of the year.