The first US bitcoin exchange traded fund launched on Tuesday, capping an almost decade-long push for a cryptocurrency-linked product to appear on a major Wall Street venue.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF launched on the New York Stock Exchange after the opening bell. 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.