Canadian regulatory bodies and financial institutions are really working on bringing Bitcoin derivative products to the market. Canadian regulators approved two Bitcoin ETFs this year, in the month of February. Now, they’ve approved the first “inverse Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).” Long story short, it means that customers are able to do both long and short Bitcoin ETFs.
Yesterday, the launch of BetaPro Bitcoin ETF (“HBIT“) and the BetaPro Inverse Bitcoin ETF (“BITI”) was announced, with their shares being available on the Toronto Stock Exchange today.
The decision comes just at the right time, as Bitcoin’s price established a new ATH. The director of ETF research for CFRA Research, Todd Rosenbluth, said:
“Many investors have a view on Bitcoin and this new ETF will provide an opportunity for those that believe the current price is not justified and that Bitcoin is overdue for a correction.”
According to CoinGape.com, BITI will offer 100% of the inverse daily performance of an index, and the press release mentions that this index “replicates the returns generated over time through exposure to long notional investments in bitcoin futures.” It is worth mentioning that the inverse Bitcoin ETF will draw a management fee of 1.45%, while that fee, in the case of HBIT, is only 1%.
The CEO of Horizons ETFs, Steve Hawkins, said:
“We know that there are polarizing views on bitcoin and as a result, there are investors with a high degree of conviction on both the bullish and bearish cases for the asset class. In launching HBIT and BITI, our goal is to provide investment tools that allow investors to get liquid access to the returns of bitcoin futures with the ability to go long or short the asset class, based on their outlook and conviction.
Buying HBIT and BITI is as easy as buying any stock or other ETF through a broker, and doesn’t require investors to open up separate cryptocurrency accounts. Additionally, BITI will offer a way for investors to achieve ‘short’ exposure to Bitcoin without having to use a margin account or shorting futures.”