In brief
- Canada's and the world's "first" Bitcoin ETF is proving to be successful.
- It holds over $470 million worth of the asset in just a week after launch.
Purpose Bitcoin ETF, the world’s first Bitcoin-settled exchange-traded fund (ETF), has attracted over 9,300 Bitcoin ($470 million) in the one week since its launch, data from markets tool Glassnode shows.
Of the mammoth stash, 1,032 Bitcoin (≈$52 million) was purchased yesterday. The buying action came even as Bitcoin saw one of its most brutal dumps ever on Monday, which liquidated $1.6 billion in futures positions.
9,320 BTC are held at Purpose #Bitcoin ETF now.
It has acquired 1,032 BTC from the market, yesterday.
🇨🇦 Canada is drinking 🇺🇸 someone's milkshake. pic.twitter.com/nLOC8wW6gN
— Lex Moskovski (@mskvsk) February 24, 2021
According to Purpose Investments's data, it holds $470 million in Bitcoin at press time. This proves the presence of massive demand from retail and institutional investors looking to buy Bitcoin from a regulated exchange—instead of using the largely unregulated crypto exchanges that dominate the landscape today.
Such figures come on the back of an explosive opening day for the Purpose Bitcoin ETF. On its first day of trading last week, the product attracted over $165 million from market participants. $80 million of that amount came within the first hour itself.
A major allure for investors is that, unlike Bitcoin futures offered by the likes of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF holds ‘spot’ Bitcoin instead of simply tracking the prices of Bitcoin. This allows for actual exposure to the asset instead of a synthetic bet on higher prices.
Purpose offers two ETFs to investors: a BTCC.U product geared to those buying with US dollars and a BTCC.B product for those with Canadian dollars. The former holds 0.00019014 BTC per share (9.59 USD) while the latter holds 0.00014976 BTC (7.55 USD) per share.
Meanwhile, the firm’s not done with its Bitcoin-focused offerings. It announced the launch of an options product on Canada’s Montreal Exchange yesterday, one that investors can now use to place bets on the future prices of the Purpose Bitcoin ETF.
Canada’s Bitcoin hopefuls are clearly spoiled for choice.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article used both $470 million in Bitcoin (per Glassnode's data) and $570 million in AUM (per the Purpose Investments website). We have clarified to reflect the current figures.