Leveraged Bitcoin Futures ETF to Start Trading Tuesday, Sponsor Says

Volatility Shares says its 2x leveraged bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund will be based on CME Bitcoin Futures prices.

AccessTimeIconJun 23, 2023 at 3:24 p.m. UTC
Updated Jun 23, 2023 at 6:22 p.m. UTC
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Volatility Shares’ 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) will become the first leveraged crypto ETF available in the United States after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) let it go effective on Friday, an executive at the company told CoinDesk.

The regulator has not denied the application for the 2x ETF, Volatility Shares Chief Investment Officer Stuart Barton said, paving the way for its launch this upcoming Tuesday.

“It’s exciting to see digital assets in the ETF wrapper,” Barton said.

A leveraged 2x ETF allows customers to gain bitcoin exposure by only putting up half the value of the bitcoin.

A prospectus filing said the ETF would correspond with the CME Bitcoin Futures Daily Roll Index.

This comes in the wake up of bitcoin’s value steadily rising past $30,000 after multiple major traditional investment companies like BlackRock filed an application for spot bitcoin ETFs with the SEC.

While a number of futures-based ETF products already trade, the SEC has consistently blocked spot products from launching. Other leveraged bitcoin futures products have also failed to secure the necessary approvals to launch.

Edited by Nikhilesh De.

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Amitoj Singh

Amitoj Singh is CoinDesk's regulatory reporter covering India. He holds BTC and ETH below CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.


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