Eoneren
Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds started trading on U.S. exchanges for the first time on Thursday as investors piled into the highest-profile crypto, bitcoin (BTC-USD), and other major tokens.
The biggest and oldest token (BTC-USD) increased 2.5% to $46.7K at 10:52 a.m. ET, after reaching as high as $49K — the highest level seen since December 2021 — early in the session. As such, most of the new bitcoin ETFs posted losses after briefly rising out of the gate.
Among the ETFs that declined in early trading include: iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) -1.7%, Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (NASDAQ:BRRR) -2.1%, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (BATS:ARKB) -3.4%, Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BATS:BTCO) -0.2%, VanEck Bitcoin Trust (BATS:HODL) -1.6%, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (BATS:FBTC) -1.7%, and Franklin Bitcoin ETF (BATS:EZBC) -3.1%.
For the gainers, Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (NYSEARCA:BITB) climbed 5.8%, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC) gained 1.7% and WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund (BATS:BTCW) eked out a 0.1% rise.
The swings come after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s long-awaited approval of 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds marked a new milestone for the wider crypto space. Investors will keep an eye on the volume of inflows into the new funds, which are widely expected to drive BTC demand higher.
“In the short term, approval will attract new investors and wider adoption, causing a larger instream of money through institutions and significant investment flows from mainstream investors,” said Euegene Abungana, an analyst at dappGambl.
“In turn, we believe this will help to increase trust in BTC, attracting more smaller investors and overall push the price to new heights in the long run,” he added.
How well spot bitcoin ETFs track the underlying asset (that is, bitcoin) and bitcoin futures is another issue that market participants will watch out for.
Bitcoin futures ETFs: ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) +1.3%, VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF (XBTF) +0.8% and Hashdex Bitcoin Futures ETF (DEFI) +2.8%.
