ProShares is set to list the United States’ first exchange-traded fund (ETF) that will allow investors to bet against bitcoin (BTC) prices and hedge their crypto investments, news site CoinDesk, which specialises in digital currencies reported on June 20.
The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy is designed to deliver the inverse of bitcoin’s performance and will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) from June 21 under the ticket BITI, the company said. It may “prove pertinent” given the current crypto downslide, the report noted.
The company, a provider of bitcoin-linked ETFs, made the first move in the space earlier too, when in October 2021 it became the first to list a bitcoin futures ETF–coinciding with the crypto’s record $68,900 price.
ProShares and another ETF-provider Direxion applied for similar bitcoin hedge products in early April. The latter has, however, not released any status updates.
Worldwide, a short bitcoin ETF by Horizons ETFs is already listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Crypto today
Cryptocurrencies traded in the green early on June 21 as the global crypto market cap rose 2.86 percent to $904.57 billion over the last 24 hours. Total crypto market volumes on the other hand declined 8.78 percent to $71.92 billion during the period.
The total volume in DeFi stood at $6.65 billion, 9.24 percent of the total crypto market's 24-hour volume. While the volume of all stable coins was $62.73 billion, 87.23 percent of the crypto market's 24-hour volume.
Bitcoin hovered around Rs 17 lakh, with a dominance of 43.35 percent. This was a 0.08 percent increase over the day, data from CoinMarketCap shows.
Investors worry
The cryptocurrency industry is on edge as bitcoin struggles to stay above a key level, with investors fearing that problems at major crypto players could unleash a wider market shakeout.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, on June 20 traded just under the symbolic level of $20,000 in early London trading hours, roughly the peak of its charge to its previous record in 2017.
Its fall follows problems at several major industry players. Further declines, market players said, could have a knock-on effect as other crypto investors are forced to sell their holdings to meet margin calls and cover losses.
Investors are concerned that issues at large crypto companies may trigger a wider market shakeout.
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