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ProShares Debuts First Short Bitcoin ETF [BITI]

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ProShares is all set to unveil its first short bitcoin-linked ETF in the United States under the ticker BITI. The new fund will go live on the New York Stock Exchange NYSE.

According to the press release, BITI will provide investors a chance to profit from Bitcoin’s price dip or protect market exposure with the convenience of an ETF. Speaking of the new launch, ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir stated,

“As recent times have shown, bitcoin can drop in value. BITI affords investors who believe that the price of bitcoin will drop an opportunity to potentially profit or hedge their cryptocurrency holdings. BITI enables investors to conveniently obtain short exposure to bitcoin through buying an ETF in a traditional brokerage account.”

Back in October 2021, ProShares created history when it successfully launched BITO, the first U.S. bitcoin-linked ETF, raking over $1 billion in assets in just two days.

The leading ETF issuer also curated the first BTC-linked mutual fund, BTCFX, in July 2021.

However, Bitcoin ETFs were being bamboozled as stocks trade sharply lower amid fears of a looming recession, with investors anticipating that the Federal Reserve may adopt a more hawkish stance by raising rates to curb surging inflation.

ProShares ETFs value dropped by 70%  

Last week, the performance of these exchange-traded funds that track Bitcoin through managed futures contracts was at their worst as these asset classes were trading all-time lows in the wake of a severe downswing in the crypto market.

As per various reports, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, in particular, has fallen almost 70%.

In addition to that, other top ETFs Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ET and VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF have all hit record lows in the wake of the mega BTC selloff.

Bitcoin has dropped 69% from its previous peak, falling 55% this year alone, as as result the ETFs troupe went belly up.

The report also notes that the popular Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has been trading lower this year, by 60.1%. That’s not its lowest level on record, but it is a 20-month low for the fund.

Terra’s outage hinders LUNA-based ETN from trading

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After Terra lost nearly all of its value in a week, three distinct exchange-traded product (ETP) issuers stated they would stop trading and issuing shares in LUNA-related investment vehicles.

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In Europe, VanEck, Valour, and 21Shares, which all offer luna ETPs, have ceased issuing shares, citing the network’s recent difficulties, which include two complete shutdowns of the apparently decentralised network. This week, all three items lost nearly all of their value.

Given the halts in the LUNA Network, issuer VanEck said today that it will cease creations and redemptions for its VanEck Terra ETN. LUNA’s blockchain was shut down twice in 24 hours due to concerns that it had been vulnerable to an assault. Do Kwon, the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, has since proposed a $1 billion token creation proposal. VanEck’s statement said,

“VanEck is unable to conduct transactions in Luna through the Terra network. Therefore, it is technically not possible to accept creations and redemption for VanEck Terra ETN.”

21Shares released resources on the LUNA collapse, stating that the indexed products will reflect the LUNA volatility.

21Shares, like VanEck, is unable to perform the creation and redemption methods in its product due to the network outage. Hany Rashwan, the firm’s CEO and co-founder, told ETF Stream that the issue would be continuously monitored.

Valour, on the other hand, has decided to suspend its Valour LUNA SEK, citing “extreme volatility and persistent uncertainty” in the LUNA environment. The Nordic Growth Market exchange is where the product is traded.

Terra’s LUNA makes a small comeback

According to Coingecko data, LUNA has had a mini-comeback in the last 24 hours, with its value rising by nearly 3000 percent to trade as high as $0.00058798. The crypto sector has seen one of its worst sell-offs in recent days, with Terra blockchain suffering the most.

The value of Layer 1’s native token, LUNA, which was among the top 10 most valuable digital assets by market cap, plummeted by 100 percent. To put things in perspective, just a week ago, the crypto currency was trading for over $70.

Apart from LUNA, the network’s stablecoin, UST, has also lost its peg and has become the latest algorithmic stablecoin to fail.

Australia Gets the Green Light to List Its First Bitcoin ETF Next Week

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According to the Australian Financial Review, Australia’s bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is poised to debut on the Cboe next week, as the country’s largest equities markets clearinghouse gives participants the green light.

According to the article, Cosmos Asset Management might launch its bitcoin ETF as early as April 27.

However, unlike other comparable products globally, Australia’s first Bitcoin ETF would invest in shares of Purpose Investment’s bitcoin ETF – North America’s first bitcoin spot ETF that began trading in early 2021. In February, Cosmos teamed with Purpose Investments.

Australia’s bitcoin ETF might attract $1 billion

To let a bitcoin ETF begin trading under its cover, ASX Clear wanted a 42 percent margin. According to reports, there are currently three institutional clearing participants and one retail clearing participant prepared to offer the required margin to trade a bitcoin contract.

Last year, Cosmos, which Nasdaq-listed bitcoin miner Mawson Infrastructure Group controls, entered the cryptocurrency fund management sector. The entry was along with the Global Digital Miners Access ETF, which invests in bitcoin mining companies.

“We are now at our minimum number of clearing participants and that means we are good to go.”

Hamish Treleaven, chief risk officer at ASX

According to the article, ETF Securities, VanEck Australia, BetaShares, and Monochrome Asset Management are among the asset management firms interested in registering bitcoin-linked ETFs in Australia.

A successful launch, according to Grumelart, will result in an influx of new gamers. “If outside markets are any indicator, a successful debut would almost certainly result in a slew of listings for crypto asset-based funds other than Bitcoin,” he added.

Since last year, when Cosmos launched its Global Digital Miners Access ETF, this will be the firm’s second crypto-related ETF.

Over the last year, the country’s officials have been striving to establish clear laws for the crypto business. Senator Andrew Bragg believes that additional jurisdiction for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is improper until bitcoin is recognized as a financial asset under Australian law.

Malaysia’s Ministry Backs Proposal To Legalize Cryptocurrency

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Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin put forward his intention to legalize digital currencies. Zahidi said the move would help the younger generation who are active users of the currency, especially on non-fungible token [NFT] trading platforms.

The Minister said the department will look into ways to increase the youth’s involvement in digital assets which he claims is the future of finance.

“All of these are under the purview of Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission. We hope the government will allow and legalize this so that we can increase the youth’s uptake of cryptocurrencies.”

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Zahidi also spoke about the government’s stand on trading on NFT platforms, which was becoming more popular, especially among the younger generation.

That being said, Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Ministry oversees the digital and broadcasting sectors didn’t specify under which ministry digital assets come.  While financial regulation falls under the central bank and the securities regulator, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government also has jurisdiction over “digital financial activities,” Zahidi said. 

Malaysia’s legal crypto adoption will lead to bullish price action

Following the news, the crypto community went into a tizzy. Entrepreneur and VanEck’s digital asset initiatives strategist, Gabor Gurbacs tweeted that the country’s population stood at around 30 million and its GDP is 35th in the global ranking, next to Hong Kong. “I wouldn’t be surprised if G20 countries also made similar moves,” he added.

Another user commented, if it turns into reality, Malaysia will be the second country after El Salvador in accepting crypto as legal tender. This news would provide a much-needed boost and expects ‘a good spike in the price of crypto’.

However, the Bank Negara Malaysia which is its Central Bank hasn’t announced any formal position on adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. In an interview back in January, the top bank said that it’s examining whether to introduce its own digital currency or CBDC. At the time of this post, the bank didn’t respond to Zahidi’s remarks. 

Last September, the Asian nation worked collectively with the Bank for International Settlements, Australia, Singapore, and South Africa to test the use of CBDCs for international settlements through a shared platform dubbed Project Dunbar. 

SEC calls for an open meeting on Dec. 2 to discuss crypto

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The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on November 24 that the topic of the upcoming crypto panel under the Investor Advisory Meeting on December 2 would be “Helping to Ensure Investor Protection and Market Integrity in the Face of New Technologies.”

The SEC notified that it would hold two-panel discussions. The first-panel discussion would be regarding cryptocurrencies and digital assets, entitled, “Helping to Ensure Investor Protection and Market Integrity in the Face of New Technologies.” The other panel discussion would be regarding the SEC’s possible role in addressing the elder financial abuse problems. 

The first-panel discussion’s agenda will primarily focus on the regulatory structure and will cover market structure issues, digital assets, and underlying risks in the upcoming technologies and innovation. Other than this, the panel is also expected to discuss NFTs, crypto-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs), blockchain technologies, and stablecoins.

Before this, the SEC announced on November 15 that the meeting is open for the general public, and moderators and panelists will participate in the meeting remotely.

The panelists have been decided very thoughtfully as almost 50% of them are in blockchain-specific roles. The other half of the panel has members such as financial market experts and luminary law professors. The blockchain-oriented members are:

  • Ali Emdad, founding director of the Center for the study of Blockchain and Financial Technology and professor and associate dean at Morgan State University’s Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management.
  • Sydney Schaub, general counsel corporate secretary and chief legal officer at Gemini
  • Tyrone Ross, CEO, and Co-founder of Onramp Invest, Founder of 401stc
  • Kristin Smith, executive director of The Blockchain Association

SEC meeting might include its recent actions

The first-panel meeting about the crypto discussion is decided to start from 10:45 am to 12:45 pm EST. The session will be a webcast on the official website of the SEC. The introductory session for the meeting will begin at 10:00 am EST.

The SEC’s controversial decision to deny Jan VanEck’s spot ETF proposal and the form of the Commission’s involvement with the crypto industry are expected to be reviewed, although the particular questions to be discussed by the panel have not yet been disclosed to the public.

ProShares’ Bitcoin ETF becomes first of its kind to garner green signal from SEC

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Bitcoin exchange-traded funds [ETF] have tried long and hard to make a debut in the US. This could finally be changing as ProShares’s application managed to garner the approval of the Securities and the Exchange Commission [SEC]. Just yesterday, Bloomberg shared a report noting that the USA would be getting its very first Bitcoin ETF and the SEC didn’t take too much time to make it official.

The SEC amassed immense hostility for its decisions pertaining to Bitcoin ETFs. An array of applications were shown the door after being time and again delayed. Many from the crypto community hoped that this would be changed with the departure of Jay Clayton and the arrival of Gary Gensler, the former and current chairman of the SEC, respectively.

The gods had finally answered the prayers of the US citizens as the SEC gave a green signal to ProShares Trust’s Bitcoin ETF. This would mean that ProShares would be listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange’s Arca. The firm’s ETF would reportedly be rolled out by 18 October 2021 following the filing of a post-effective amendment prospectus.

James Seyffart from Bloomberg tweeted about the same and stated,

“There it is! Bloomberg’s data team in the process of adding the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF to the terminal. Ticker will be $BITO. 95 bps — less than half $GBTC’s 2% fee. This thing is going live next week. Either Monday or Tuesday.”

Back in August, ProShares along with VanEck decided to pull the plug on their Ether ETF filings. While several expressed angst over this, the approval of a Bitcoin ETF was a relief to many.

Bitcoin [BTC] pushes beyond $60K

Bitcoin [BTC] was sitting below the $60K zone for the longest time now. The king coin witnessed a massive plummet from an all-time high of $64K. During the time of writing, BTC had not only hit $60K but even made it past this zone. BTC was trading for $61,359 with a 3.41% surge in the last 24-hours. The entire week was certainly beneficial to the asset as it acquired gains of about 11%.

Additionally, Bitcoin’s market cap was at a high of $1.15 trillion.

Tron [TRX] struggles to gather strength but user growth remains strong

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Tron [TRX], which was once one of the top crypto-assets, has gradually fallen off the leaderboard. Despite the depreciation in terms of its price, user growth has been steady. Tron Foundation unveiled the semi-annual report of user growth and found a gradual increase in figures over the past seven months.

The total number of accounts on Tron was recorded to be 18.633K in the month of January. At the end of June, the figures stood at over 44.726k, meaning an increase of more than 140%. Even after falling to the 28th spot, user growth has remained pretty unfazed.

Daily sign-ups, on the other hand, fell short. From 68,962 to 146,630 in a seven months span, the figures were up by more than 112%; however, the statistics have reacted strongly to the token’s price action. Daily sign-up figures reached a high of 275,778 in the month of May at the peak of the bull run. Subsequent corrections and FUDs engulfing the market damaged the momentum.

Another important indicator of decent growth was the number of active accounts on the network. Even as the count slashed half from the month of June, at 5.261k, to July at 2.002k, it still rose by around 150% since the beginning of the year.

Tron’s [TRX] price is yet to catch up

TRX 1M graph coinmarketcap
Tron [TRX] struggles to gather strength but user growth remains strong 4

TRX has finally managed to log into some gains this month as the wider crypto market went for a bullish spin. However, it is yet to catch up to its peer tokens in terms of price action after falling behind the likes of Tezos [XTZ], VeChain [VET], and Ethereum Classic [ETC].

After dwelling in the bearish territory, for the most part, TRX noted a minor increase of 0.87% over the past day, which pushed its token to $0.095.

Tron Weekly had earlier reported the official launch of Tron’s [TRX] exchange-traded product on Xetra, which happens to be the electronic trading platform of Europe’s biggest Deutsche Börse German stock exchange. The main objective of the new product, which is an exchange-traded note [ETN] called ‘VanEck Vectors Tron ETN [VTRX],’ was to develop its foothold across Zurich, Paris, and Amsterdam. However, the news failed to bring in positive price action.

Tron [TRX] ETN debuts on Europe’s biggest Stock Exchange

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Justin Sun-led Tron Foundation announced Tron’s [TRX] exchange-traded product has officially debuted on Xetra, which happens to be the electronic trading platform of Europe’s biggest Deutsche Börse German stock exchange. The new product is an exchange-traded note [ETN] dubbed ‘VanEck Vectors Tron ETN [VTRX]’ and is set to expand its foothold across Zurich, Paris, and Amsterdam.

This is s major breakthrough for TRX who’s an addition to the list that represents the third such mainstream crypto to have landed their ETN on the world-renowned fund management company after Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH].

Announcing the same, the foundation stated,

“The successful listing of VTRX, on the heels of Bitcoin and Ethereum, is a fresh testimony to Tron’s robust crypto ecosystem and its successful drive to expand its global roadmap. It is also a significant milestone in Tron’s effort to keep up with the evolving regulatory environment.”

Why Tron?

VanEck has been one of the first asset managers to submit a Bitcoin ETF application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC]. Since then, it has launched several products. Last year, VanEck rolled out one of the world’s first Bitcoin ETNs [VBTC]. Next came Ethereum ETN [VETH] in 2021. The latest move of listing VTRX after launching BTC and ETH indicates TRX increasing “market recognition” as a prominent blockchain platform across the world.

Martijn Rozemuller, CEO at VanEck Europe, admitted that while Ethereum continues to lead the pack, younger platforms such as Tron provide additional advantages in the form of lower transaction costs or faster processes. Hence, adding these assets to an investor increases the diversification while reducing the overall risk, added the exec.

What does TRX ETN entail?

With TRX ETN, investors in the region will have a regulation option to invest in cryptocurrency. Xetra provides access to Europe’s largest ETF exchange. Another upside for the users is that there is no need to worry about wallets and encryption keys while trading ETN on stock exchanges. Additionally, investors can enjoy significantly lower risks of settlement to the central clearing systems.

According to the foundation overseeing the development of TRX, the listing will aid in reducing the gap between the crypto ecosystem and mainstream financial markets in Europe and will strengthen TRX’s position.

Will SEC ever approve a Bitcoin ETF plea? Wisdom Tree’s appeal delayed

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The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America has been vocal about its hostility towards the crypto-verse. The constant disapproval of Bitcoin ETFs is a significant model of the same.

Even though the world has started to embrace cryptocurrencies, a few governments and regulators continue to oppose them. Despite the ongoing slump that the market is currently in, the popularity of the assets continues to soar. This has forced regulators to take a deeper look into the industry. The SEC has had numerous fallouts with the crypto industry. The Ripple vs. SEC case stands as a prominent example.

Several firms have been seeking approval from the SEC for a Bitcoin ETF. However, the regulator has either delayed or shot down these appeals.

SEC delays another Bitcoin ETF appeal

In a recent report, the financial watchdog revealed that it was delaying its decision on Wisdom Tree’s Bitcoin ETF plea. The regulator took another turn and urged the public to submit their views on the approval or denial of the ETF.

The notice stated,

“The Commission requests that interested persons provide written submissions of their views, data and arguments with respect to the issues identified above, as well as any other concerns they may have with the proposal.”

Wisdom Tree filed an application with the regulator back in March 2021. This is the second time that the regulator is delaying its verdict. The agency was required to either give the project a green signal or deny it back in May 2021 itself.

The regulator has given the public a period of 21 days to submit their views to the Federal Register. Rebuttals will be filed within 35 days of publication. Elaborating on the reason behind the involvement of the public, the SEC wrote,

“The Exchange asserts that the manipulation concerns previously articulated by the Commission are sufficiently mitigated to the point that they are outweighed by quantifiable investor protection issues.”

Elon Musk addresses angry tweets against him over recent crypto market crash

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Last week, has been all about Elon Musk and the great crypto carnage. The crypto market crumbled down losing all its gains. While some remained positive despite losing out on investments, a few others have been outrightly tweeting to Musk expressing hate.

But, what did Musk do to receive this hate? Musk has time and again expressed his interest in crypto, particularly in Bitcoin [BTC] and Dogecoin [BTC]. While the tech billionaire continued supporting and endorsing DOGE, he went on to reveal that Tesla was withdrawing BTC as a payment method. This wasn’t all, the Tesla CEO also dumped all of his holdings. All this over the environmental damages that BTC causes.

This further triggered a downward trajectory that pushed BTC’s price down to a low of $36K. Soon after the aforementioned tweet, the crypto community went ballistic on Elon Musk and called him out for manipulating the market.

Elon Musk clarifies who the “true battle” was between

Musk remained mum despite receiving immense backlash over the last couple of days. In his most recent tweet, the SpaceX founder decided to address the situation. His tweet read,

“Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology”

Further replying to this tweet, a Twitter user who goes by the name, Shifo asked Musk what he thought about the ongoing hate against him, over the recent crash in the crypto-verse. To this Musk replied,

“The true battle is between fiat & crypto. On balance, I support the latter.”

Furthermore, while Elon Musk’s tweet notes that he was still interested in crypto, it wasn’t clear if his perception of BTC had changed.

Replying to the same tweet, the CEO of VanEck, Gabor Gurbacs noted that every cryptocurrency was different. His tweet read,

Elon Musk
Elon Musk addresses angry tweets against him over recent crypto market crash 6

While this persists, Bitcoin continues to slump. At the time of writing, BTC was trading for $38,321 with a 5.42% drop in the last 24-hours. The market cap of the king coin was heading towards a low of $700 billion. Bitcoin’s dominance was also moving earthward as it was noted at 44.5%.