Bitcoin hit a new record on Wednesday after it took another step towards mainstream status as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency forayed onto Wall Street.
A Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF), a type of financial instrument, made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The Bitcoin Strategy ETF rose nearly five percent in its first day of trading on Tuesday.
The fund should be a more accessible vehicle for mainstream investors, and could therefore boost trading in the cryptocurrency.
At one point on Wednesday, Bitcoin hit surged past $66,000 before receding.
“It’s a validating moment,” said Jesse Proudman, co-founder and chief executive at Makara, a crypto advisory firm. “It’s no longer a question of does this asset class continue to exist, I think that is a really meaningful mark in the history of the broader digital-asset class.”
More than 24 million shares in the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF — trading under the ticker BITO, changed hands, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
With turnover of almost $1 billion, BITO’s debut was behind only a BlackRock carbon fund for a first day of trading, the latter ranking higher due to pre-seed investments, according to Athanasios Psarofagis at Bloomberg Intelligence.
The Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, explained why the regulator gave the green light to the Bitcoin futures ETF ETF but not a spot bitcoin ETF.
In an interview with CNBC Gary Gensler reiterated that his agency “should be technology neutral, but not policy neutral.”
“What we’re trying to do is ensure to the best we can within our authorities to bring projects into the investor protection perimeter,” he said
“Bitcoin futures have been overseen by our sibling agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which I was once honored and proud to serve there and that’s been four years.”