Crypto’s “Uptober” is still on track today, with the first Bitcoin futures backed exchanged-traded fund (ETF) all set to list and launch on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

ProShares is set to be the first US-based Bitcoin ETF cab off the rank and will begin trading tomorrow under the ticker BITO. In a press statement made today, ProShares CEO Michael Sapir said the launch marks a milestone for ETFs.

“BITO will continue the legacy of ETFs that provide investors convenient, liquid access to an asset class, said Sapir. “1993 is remembered for the first equity ETF, 2002 for the first bond ETF, and 2004 for the first gold ETF. 2021 will be remembered for the first cryptocurrency-linked ETF.”

Bearing in mind (no pun intended) there are those who think the Bitcoin ETF launch could still be a “buy the rumour, sell the news event”, or worse, a peak bull-market signal, similar to the CME Bitcoin futures launch the sector saw back in January 2018, which directly preceded a brutal drop and lengthy bear market.

But there are also many more who don’t subscribe to the futures ETF being a negative catalyst for an extended bear run and are, in fact, bullish for the complete opposite…

And judging by this tweet from Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, it looks like the next Bitcoin ETF – the Valkyrie one – could even be happening on the same day as ProShares. As Bill Lawry would say, “it’s all happening”.

 

Interactive Brokers bringing financial advisers into the fold

In fact, it is pretty much is all happening in institutional Bitcoin investment land. No sooner had we typed that last sentence, that we learnt the huge, global brokerage firm, Interactive Brokers, has announced its launch of crypto trading for registered investment advisers (RIAs) in the US.

At this stage, the brokerage will enable the financial advisers to trade and custody Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) via Paxos Trust Company on behalf of clients.

 

Grayscale plans spot BTC version

Grayscale Investments, the biggest existing institutional-investment facilitators for Bitcoin with its GBTC product, has reiterated its long-held plans to convert its Bitcoin fund into an ETF. A “physical”, spot-backed ETF, that is. One that actually holds custody of Bitcoin – making it a more effective vehicle for positive price movement and stability.

The company’s communications director, Jennifer Rosenthal, tweeted today that Grayscale plans to file its ETF application “once there’s official and verifiable evidence of the SEC’s comfort with the underlying Bitcoin market.”

It likely won’t happen in a hurry, however, as once the application is made, the SEC will have 75 days to review it. The SEC has delayed and rejected numerous spot-backed ETFs in the past. But then again… maybe Grayscale is privy to some ETF-approval “alpha”, as Crypto Twitter would put it. Possible.

 

Mooners and shakers

In the meantime, Bitcoin (BTC) has certainly been fluctuating, perhaps reflecting an on-edge, nervously excited market. At the time of writing, the OG crypto is trading just above US$62K, up about two per cent from this time yesterday. Although it was dangerously close to losing US$60K a few hours ago.

The crypto market cap, as a whole, is looking in decent shape right now at US$2.58 trillion, give or take a few hundred million dollars, and is up about half a percentage point in the past 24 hours.

With most eyes on Bitcoin, we have a pretty mixed bag in the top 10 and top 100 by market cap, with plenty of coins in the red by at least a percentage point or two.

An outlier, however, is the coin that’s designed to bring smart contracts to the Bitcoin network – Stacks (STX), which is up 20.14 per cent at the time of writing and the best performer in the top 100 in the past 24 hours. It’s currently changing hands for US$2.53.

Other notable cryptos having a double-digit percentage green day include the Avalanche decentralised exchange Trader Joe (JOE), +35%; cross-chain DeFi staking solution Ankr (ANKR), +20%; and Southeast Asian-based gaming ecosystem and crypto-project incubator RedFox Labs (RFOX), which is up 17% at the time of writing.

Kuma Inu (KUMA), meanwhile, is having a dog-day afternoon, down 28%; Wonderland.Money (TIME) has pulled back and is -20% compared with this time yesterday; while DAO-based DeFi project Olympus (OHM) continues its weekly slide – negative 15% in the past 24 hours and down more than 25% over seven days.

 

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