ProShares, an investment product provider, announced the launch of the US first short Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would allow investors to bet on Bitcoin’s decline. The product has launched Tuesday under the ticker BITI.
According to Monday’s statement, the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF would allow investors to profit from a BTC price decrease or hedge their crypto exposure. As markets reopen following the holidays, the product has launched on Tuesday under the ticker BITI.
“As recent times have shown, Bitcoin can drop in value,” ProShares CEO Michael Sapir said in a press release. “BITI affords investors who believe that the price of Bitcoin will drop with an opportunity to potentially profit or to hedge their cryptocurrency holdings. BITI enables investors to conveniently obtain short exposure to Bitcoin through buying an ETF in a traditional brokerage account.”
BITI aims to deliver the opposite performance of the S&P CME Bitcoin Futures Index. It will obtain exposure through Bitcoin futures contracts. As ProShares applied to list BITI in early April, this is the first of its sort in the US, while other short exchange-traded products (ETPs) are currently available from Europe to Canada.
ProShares was the first issuer to provide a crypto ETF located in the US with the launch of its ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. It reached around $1 billion in volume on its first trading day in October 2021.
In January, ProShares filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to seek approval to launch a ProShares Metaverse Theme ETF, an ETF that will track the Solactive Metaverse Theme Index, which includes firms that are associated with the metaverse technology.