ProShares, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider, today announced A new product that will allow investors to bet against bitcoin – a US first.
The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF, set to begin trading under BITI on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, offers a profit opportunity if the world’s largest digital asset declines in price.
Short selling is an investment strategy that speculates on an asset that is declining in value compared to more traditional bets on a potential rise between stocks, bonds or cryptocurrencies. An ETF is a investment product It allows investors to buy shares that represent an asset.
“Bitcoin is likely to decline in value as has been shown in recent days,” ProShares CEO Michael L. Sapir said in a statement. “BITI provides investors who believe the price of bitcoin will fall with a potential profit opportunity or to hedge their cryptocurrency holdings.”
Investors “can easily obtain low exposure to bitcoin by purchasing an ETF in a traditional brokerage account,” he added.
The launch of the ETF comes at a time when bitcoin – and the crypto market as a whole – has collapsed. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $20,306.37, according For CoinMarketCap. Last November, it reached an all-time high of $68,789.63.
BITI believed that the S&P CME bitcoin futures index performed inversely, and would gain exposure through bitcoin futures contracts.
Bitcoin ETFs that track the price of cryptocurrencies are popular in the US because the SEC has been slow to approve the spot bitcoin ETF product.
In October, the SEC finally Approved The first Bitcoin Futures ETF—another ProShares product.
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