The US Securities and Exchange Commission is putting off decisions regarding spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds. Meanwhile the Euronext exchange that trades across seven EU economies is offering a new spot Bitcoin ETF! The Jacobi FT Wilshere Bitcoin ETF trades under the BCOIN ticker symbol. Flow Traders is its market maker and Fidelity Digital Assets provides custody for the fund. It is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. Who will use the Euronext Bitcoin ETF and how will that work out?
Trade Bitcoin ETF on European Market
American investors and traders have been waiting for the SEC to OK one or more of the potential spot Bitcoin ETFs. These folks do not need to wait any longer. All that an American investor needs is a broker that offers stocks on the Euronext exchange. The price of a share in middle of August 2023 was $19.55 and as of September 26, 2023 it closed at $17.72. This is consistent with the price of Bitcoin itself which went from $29,000 to $26,000 during the same time frame.
How Much Interest Is There In the New Spot Bitcoin ETF?
News stories about the availability of the new spot Bitcoin ETF are highlighting the potential for billions of dollars in investments. However, a look at trading volumes for the Jacobi FT Wilshere Bitcoin ETF shows them to be spotty with trading as high as four thousand shares on August 30, sixty-seven on August 31, 1,212 on the first of September and none or zero per day since then. Perhaps this is a glitch on their website. Or perhaps, the actual interest once this spot Bitcoin ETF became available was less than the hype led up to believe.
Why Invest in or Trade Bitcoin?
Up until the end of 2021 the obvious reason to invest in Bitcoin was that it always went up. Yes, it rose and fell, but it always eclipsed the previous high at its next peak. Then crypto winter took all of that certainty away. Today’s Bitcoin investors are those who believe that we are in a market bottom and that Bitcoin will rise again. Bitcoin traders are not necessarily those who believe in the long term rise of the cryptocurrency. Rather they believe in taking profits from the fluctuations of its price.
Why Invest in or Trade a Spot Bitcoin ETF?
There are a lot of people who would like to make money from Bitcoin. Many of these folks are not interested in getting a crypto wallet or keeping track of the keys needed to access that wallet. What they are comfortable with is buying and selling stocks or shares of ETFs through their brokerage. These are the people who may find a spot Bitcoin ETF interesting and useful. However, the same issues regarding investing in and trading Bitcoin apply to these folks that apply to folks to trade Bitcoin directly. What is the long term future of the cryptocurrency and can you make money trying to time the market?
There Is No Spot Bitcoin ETF Wash Trading
A serious issue for those who trade Bitcoin is the large amount of Bitcoin wash trading. This practice distorts the market by giving traders the mistaken impression that there is more interest in and trading of Bitcoin than there really is. Wash trading is not anywhere near the problem on stock markets like the New York Stock Exchange or Euronext that it is on Bitcoin exchanges. However, all a spot Bitcoin ETF does is track the price of Bitcoin and not create the market itself. Thus, anyone who trades or invests in Bitcoin via the new spot ETF needs to be aware that wash trading in the original Bitcoin markets, and thus the Bitcoin price, may be distorted by this practice.
SlideShare Version – Euronext Bitcoin ETF
