On June 27, New York time, the first U.S. leveraged bitcoin futures ETF (stock code: BITX) opened on the CBOE BZX exchange, with a trading volume of nearly $5.5 million, making it the product with the largest first-day trading volume among the ETFs launched this year.
The launch of BITX comes as BlackRock submits a spot bitcoin ETF to the SEC, which some market watchers believe could be the time for such a product to gain traction, given the asset manager's stature and near-perfect approval history. A potentially good sign for regulatory approval.
Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas said in a tweet that the SEC's willingness to allow leveraged bitcoin futures ETFs may indicate that bitcoin products "see hope."
While the launch of a bitcoin futures ETF has been welcomed, there has also been some opposition. Some people in the industry believe that it is more important to approve simple spot ETFs before approving complex leveraged futures ETFs to protect investors' interests.
After BlackRock applied for a Bitcoin ETF, asset management firm WisdomTree followed suit. WisdomTree said in the filing: “Bitcoin markets have matured to operate in a manner substantially similar in efficiency and size to mature equity, fixed income and commodity markets.”
While there has been no voice from BlackRock, WisdomTree's application has been rejected by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to comply with data-sharing agreement requirements, although this is not the first time the company has been rejected.
Previously, WisdomTree had applied for a spot Bitcoin ETF twice. The first application was rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2021; the second application was rejected again in October 2022. The reason for the rejection was still the financial regulatory agency Concerns about fraud and market manipulation. Currently, WisdomTree manages approximately $87 billion in assets.
WisdomTree Global Chief Investment Officer Jeremy Schwartz said that the recent spot bitcoin ETF filings have one thing in common, that is, they are trying to reach a data sharing monitoring agreement between exchanges to help the SEC deal with price manipulation issues. Although the futures market is based on spot prices, the SEC has begun approving futures ETFs, in part because the futures market shares information with the SEC. Therefore, the data sharing monitoring agreement may be one of the key points that the SEC considers when approving the spot bitcoin ETF application.
According to industry insiders, WisdomTree should be the first to follow suit after BlackRock’s application. It seems that it is not ready, but the reason for the rejection this time is that the data sharing agreement is not in compliance, which is different from the previous manipulation of the market. It shows that the Bitcoin spot ETF is getting closer and closer to being approved, and there is a high probability that BlackRock's ETF will become the world's first compliant Bitcoin spot ETF, and it is still trading on one of the largest exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange.
At the same time, the butterfly effect brought by BlackRock is still spreading, and a series of developments show that the cryptocurrency market is gradually gaining more attention from financial institutions and investors.
Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, a digital asset management company, said on Twitter that not only BlackRock, but at least eight major financial institutions have indicated their entry into cryptocurrencies, including: Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Invesco (lnvesco) and Bank of America, etc. Meltem Demirors also pointed out that many U.S. financial institutions are actively offering Bitcoin services, and the total assets under management of these enterprises have reached a staggering $27 trillion.
Outside the U.S., Hong Kong-based HSBC has also begun allowing its clients to buy and sell crypto asset ETFs listed on the Hong Kong exchange. Currently, the cryptocurrency ETFs listed in Hong Kong include CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF, CSOP Ethereum Futures ETF, and Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF.
In response to Hong Kong HSBC Bank’s launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF trading services, Justin Sun, founder of TRON and member of Huobi’s Global Advisory Committee, tweeted that this move not only broadens the acceptance of cryptocurrencies, but also increases local support for digital currencies. Asset acquisition channels.
Summarize
If BlackRock or other large financial institutions are approved to launch a bitcoin spot ETF, it will undoubtedly have a major impact on the cryptocurrency market. The application boom of a larger bitcoin spot ETF will hit, and the cryptocurrency market will therefore gain more attention and liquidity. For the currently lacking vitality of the cryptocurrency market, it is hard to say that it is not a return of confidence. "Timely Rain".