Bitcoin topped $64,421 on Wednesday, hovering around a historic high as the red-hot market debut of the first crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) buoyed investors’ interest toward cryptocurrencies.
The world’s top digital currency hit an overnight high of $64,500, its highest since late April, and was up 3% to $63,943.10 at 9:48am GMT, according to Coinbase data.
ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which started trading on Tuesday, gives investors an option for buying and selling bitcoin via futures contracts rather than owning it outright. The bitcoin ETF futures became the first of their kind to gain regulatory approval in the US prior to the launch.
ProShares reportedly saw more than 24 million shares change hands on its debut, making it the second-most-traded fund launch of all time, generating over $1 billion in turnover, Bloomberg reported.
The launch of the new product was “meaningful” for bitcoin, according to James Quinn, managing partner at Q9 Capital, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency private wealth manager.
“Theoretically, any licensed brokerage firm in the US who wants to take on this ETF can do so as easily as any other ETF, which should make it available to a lot of folks,” said Quinn.
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