Bitcoin exchange traded fund debuts on Wall Street

Bitcoin exchange traded fund debuts on Wall Street

The first bitcoin exchanged traded fund in the US market has debuted in New York, marking the first time a cryptocurrency-linked product has appeared on a major Wall Street exchange.

The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF launched on the New York Stock Exchange after the opening bell on Tuesday. While similar ETFs already trade in other jurisdictions, the listing in the US — the world’s biggest equities market — is a key test of whether mainstream investors are willing to place cryptocurrencies alongside stocks, bonds and other traditional assets in their portfolios.

“This is an important milestone for ETFs, alongside the first equity ETF [in the US] in 1993, the first fixed income ETF in 2002 and the first gold ETF in 2004,” said Michael Sapir, chief executive of ProShares, which manages $65bn in ETFs and is based in Bethesda, Maryland.

Bitcoin has rallied close to the record high it hit earlier this year, fuelled in part by expectations that bitcoin ETFs will pull new money into the digital asset market. The most actively traded cryptocurrency rose above $62,000 on Tuesday, having more than doubled from a low point during a summer sell-off.

ETF providers have been lobbying the Securities and Exchange Commission for eight