New York Stock Exchange Seeks Green Light from SEC to List Bitcoin ETFS

Bitcoin ETFs are one step closer to going public as the New York Stock Exchange has requested the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission to permit it to list five crypto-focused exchange-traded funds, according to an SEC filing.

The news broke out after Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF Analyst for Bloomberg, tweeted the update on January 6, 2018.

The said ETFs were established by Direxion Asset Management which is geared towards the tracking of CME Bitcoin Futures trading. The funds intend to increase investor returns, although they are not entirely connected to the price of Bitcoin.

A section of the filing reads:

“By being long Bitcoin Futures Contracts, the Fund seeks to benefit from daily increases in the price of the Bitcoin Futures Contracts.The Fund will not be benchmarked to the current price of bitcoin and will not invest directly in bitcoin. When the price of Bitcoin Futures Contracts held by the Fund declines, the Fund will lose value.”

Specifically, the NYSE is waiting for SEC’s green light to list the ProShares Short Bitcoin ETF and ProShares Bitcoin ETF. ProShares also filed separate documents for these two ETFs back in September 2017

Bitcoin traders have long wanted an ETF for the digital currency and were given a gleam of hope when the two of the world’s largest options exchanges — Cboe and CME — launched bitcoin futures contracts during the second half of 2017. While this can be seen as a good sign for crypto-focused ETFs going mainstream soon, the SEC still has the final decision.