ProShares Aims to Let Investors Bet Against Bitcoin With New ETF
The company filed an application with the SEC for the Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF.
Apr 6, 2022 at 3:27 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/FJD2RI6DDVGSNHIHHKYFYFGSA4.jpg)
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Michael Bellusci is CoinDesk's crypto reporter focused on public companies and digital asset firms.
ProShares has applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch what would be this country’s first inverse bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
As the name implies, an inverse ETF is designed to perform as the opposite of whatever index or benchmark it is designed to track.
- An ETF that shorts bitcoin (BTC) from Horizons ETFs currently trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
- ProShares introduced, and won SEC approval for, the first bitcoin futures ETF trading in the U.S., the Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO). The SEC has yet to approve a bitcoin ETF that holds actual bitcoin.
- The inverse product, the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF, if approved, would also track bitcoin futures.
- Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas notes the SEC rejected a similar offering by Direxion last year, but believes this ProShares product has a shot given ProShares’ track record in getting BITO approved.
UPDATE (April 6, 15:50 UTC): Clarifies that ProShares introduced the first bitcoin futures ETF in the U.S.
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Michael Bellusci is CoinDesk's crypto reporter focused on public companies and digital asset firms.
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Michael Bellusci is CoinDesk's crypto reporter focused on public companies and digital asset firms.
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