In Brief:
- Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF fell 2.8% from its inception price of $25.
- More than 3.1 million shares were traded worth about $78 million.
Compared to the launch of the first U.S. Bitcoin ETF three days ago, the second ETF has made a less dramatic debut.
Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF started trading under the ticker BTF and fell 2.8% from its inception price of $25 on Friday. More than 3.1 million shares were traded worth about $78 million.
Three days earlier, a futures-based Bitcoin exchange-traded fund debuted in the US, but it did not cause as much of a stir as the first one.
Valkyrie faced high expectations after the launch of the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (under the ticker of BITO) on Tuesday, which was the second-largest launch ever, taking assets in the fund over $1 billion in two days.
There could be a lot of competition soon, as VanEck plans to launch a Bitcoin strategy ETF next week (under the ticker XBTF) with a management fee that’s 30 basis points cheaper than ProShares and Valkyrie.
Leah Wald, Valkyrie Funds CEO, said Thursday in a Bloomberg interview, “The market can handle a lot of different issuers’ products and we very much welcome the competition – obviously, we’re coming in second to market here but we’re very excited, we wish our competition luck.”
BITO is having difficulty keeping up with demand since the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has imposed a limit on how many contracts it can hold for the front month. The ProShares fund fell for a second day, around 3%.
It is also possible that Valkyrie’s fund, which holds short-term Bitcoin contracts, could be affected by the same.
