January 2024 marked a truly historic event for the cryptocurrency market. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the opening of spot Bitcoin ETFs. The first applications for Bitcoin ETFs were submitted to the SEC back in 2014 but were rejected.
What is a spot Bitcoin ETF?
An ETF (exchange-traded fund) is an investment fund that builds up a portfolio of assets and then issues its own shares linked to those assets. In this case, the securities are pegged to the value of Bitcoin on which the fund's share price depends. Investors buy Bitcoin ETF securities but don't directly own the cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) is held by the spot Bitcoin ETF, which is the main difference to futures Bitcoin ETFs, which were approved relatively long ago. That type of ETF holds futures contracts pegged to the cryptocurrency.
On 10 January 2024, the SEC approved applications from 11 funds. Their Bitcoin-backed shares will be traded on the following exchanges:
New York Stock Exchange (NYCE):
- Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (CFD ticker BITB in Libertex)
- Hashdex Bitcoin ETF (CFD ticker DEFI in Libertex)
Nasdaq:
- Bitcoin Trust (BlackRock iShares) (CFD ticker IBIT in Libertex)
- Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (CFD ticker BRRR in Libertex)
- Grayscale Bitcoin Trust
Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE):
- ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (CFD ticker ARKB in Libertex)
- Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (CFD ticker BTCO in Libertex)
- WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund (CFD ticker BTCW in Libertex)
- Franklin Bitcoin ETF (CFD ticker EZBC in Libertex)
- VanEck Bitcoin Trust (CFD ticker HODL in Libertex)
- Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (CFD ticker FBTC in Libertex).
Bitcoin Trust (BlackRock iShares), CFDs ticker IBIT in Libertex
Bitcoin Trust (BlackRock iShares) is an ETF fund from BlackRock, one of the largest investment companies in the world and the largest in the world in terms of assets under management. A surveillance-sharing agreement was added to the application the company submitted to the SEC. That would envisage surveillance sharing with major regulated crypto exchanges, which the SEC believes is incredibly important to preventing market manipulation. There are 4.6 million free-floating shares. The fund's commission is 0.25%. Investors in IBIT won't pay the commission to the management company for a year (the longest period among all approved spot Bitcoin ETFs) or until the ETF has $5 billion under management.
Past performance over the first two days after the Bitcoin ETF launch
Bitcoin ETFs started trading on 11 January 2024. On the first two days of trading, their volatility was 10.4%
How to buy and sell Bitcoin ETFs CFDs
You can trade Bitcoin ETFs CFDs through a broker or trading platform, such as MetaTrader or Libertex, where you can use a multiplier and also trade even if the value of the underlying asset declines.
