Blackrock launching a spot Ethereum ETF

[pmbug]

Following a landmark approval by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 10, shares of several spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have started debuting on exchanges.

As of 2:45 pm UTC on Jan. 11, data from the Cboe BZX Exchange showed that shares of the Bitcoin ETF from ARK 21Shares were trading at $50.18 under the ticker ARKB, those from Invesco Galaxy at $49.59 under BTCO, WisdomTree at $52.13 under BTCW, Fidelity at $44.40 under FBTC, and Franklin Temple at $28.48 under ​​EZBC. The spot BTC ETF offered by VanEck, under the ticker symbol HODL, did not appear to be live at the time of publication but was set for an opening price of $54.92.

On the Nasdaq Stock Market, shares of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund under the ticker BRRR started trading in the pre-market for roughly $20 before dropping to $14.10 at the time of publication. Shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust — offered by the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock — under IBIT also surged roughly 22% in some pre-market activity, trading at $28.64 at the time of publication.

The spot Bitcoin ETF offered by Grayscale Investments — one of the offerings that likely contributed to the SEC approval of the investment vehicles — opened at $42.25 under GBTC on the New York Stock Exchange Arca, rising to $42.97 at the time of publication. Shares of the Bitwise Bitcoin Trust started trading at $26.80 under BITB, and the Hashdex Bitcoin Futures ETF, which also holds spot BTC following SEC approval, opened at $60.00 under the ticker DEFI.
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More:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-etfs-trading-cboe-nyse-arca-nasdaq

 

[Mordan]

That is a short term possibility.

In the long run, I am not optimistic. Bitcoin has been touted as a stable currency, limited in it's ability to be expanded, and filling the same role as gold.

IMHO, the price of gold and silver has been suppressed via a variety of techniques (naked shorting being a huge concern). But on top of that, the creation of gold and silver ETFs has been a way of reducing demand for physical gold, thus suppressing the price. Likewise, the creation of bitcoin ETFs will serve the same purpose. Instead of holding actual bitcoin, people will be holding ETFs that claim to hold bitcoin. Will they really? Especially over time, as the temptation to commit fraud grows? As an ETF, what other manipulations can be undertaken by TPTB?

You cannot audit Gold reserves easily. Its actually impossible..

Here is the live audit of top Bitcoin exchanges. https://www.coinglass.com/Balance

The power of the blockchain

Sure they can still lend and allow their buddies to do naked sells on Futures or maybe spot.. But you forget that if you sell Bitcoins on an exchange without owning them.. the exchange is commiting fraud easily detectable when people start withdraw their bitcoins.

see FTX.. that's what they did.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/202...tf-filing-within-hours-of-quick-sec-response/

Crypto is likely to explode to the upside tomorrow when the SEC approves the ETFs.

You never know. "Buy the rumor, sell the news". Selling on IPO day is often a good strategy.

Down about 6.5% today...

 

[pmbug]

Yeah, I think it's next week before any buying pressure from the ETFs will kick in. All of them did their seed buying before the approval.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

That is a short term possibility.

In the long run, I am not optimistic. Bitcoin has been touted as a stable currency, limited in it's ability to be expanded, and filling the same role as gold.

IMHO, the price of gold and silver has been suppressed via a variety of techniques (naked shorting being a huge concern). But on top of that, the creation of gold and silver ETFs has been a way of reducing demand for physical gold, thus suppressing the price. Likewise, the creation of bitcoin ETFs will serve the same purpose. Instead of holding actual bitcoin, people will be holding ETFs that claim to hold bitcoin. Will they really? Especially over time, as the temptation to commit fraud grows? As an ETF, what other manipulations can be undertaken by TPTB?

Well, bitcoin dropped from over $48k to under $40k since the introduction of the bitcoin ETFs. So far, it looks like the ETFs are suppressing the price of bitcoin, just like ETFs did to precious metals. Metals and bitcoin are extremely volatile, so only time will tell...

 

[pmbug]

Well, bitcoin dropped from over $48k to under $40k since the introduction of the bitcoin ETFs. So far, it looks like the ETFs are suppressing the price of bitcoin, just like ETFs did to precious metals. Metals and bitcoin are extremely volatile, so only time will tell...

It's not "the ETFs". It's GrayScale (GBTC). GBTC was a closed end fund for over a decade that got converted into an ETF. The conversion allowed GBTC owners to sell. GBTC outflows have exceeded the inflows for all the other ETFs combined. Half of the GBTC selling over the first 3-4 ETF trading days was FTX bankruptcy liquidation. GBTC also has a fee structure of 1.5% whereas the others are around 0.4%. So no one wants to keep money locked up in it.

Now it looks like Mt. Gox is getting ready to liquidate another huge pile of BTC a decade after they went kaputsky. Wherever BTC bottoms may be the last great opportunity to buy low.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

It's not "the ETFs". It's GrayScale (GBTC). GBTC was a closed end fund for over a decade that got converted into an ETF. The conversion allowed GBTC owners to sell. GBTC outflows have exceeded the inflows for all the other ETFs combined. Half of the GBTC selling over the first 3-4 ETF trading days was FTX bankruptcy liquidation. GBTC also has a fee structure of 1.5% whereas the others are around 0.4%. So no one wants to keep money locked up in it.

Now it looks like Mt. Gox is getting ready to liquidate another huge pile of BTC a decade after they went kaputsky. Wherever BTC bottoms may be the last great opportunity to buy low.

Oh, I know about GBTC. They have been trying to convert to an ETF for almost a decade, and were prevented until BlackRock and others had their Bitcoin ETFs ready. Normal investors could buy and sell GBTC the entire time. It's just that Blackrock and others are undercutting on the Expense Ratio. Greyscale blew it by not lowering their expenses.

But that is simply moving from one ETF to the next, which should be a net wash, not a lowering in bitcoin prices.

 

[pmbug]

https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/1792645992463978533

ETH up 10% on the news. Thank you Trump.

 

[pmbug]

https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1801725292404261308