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Valkyrie Secures Go-Ahead for Bitcoin Futures ETF

The crypto-native fund manager is the third sponsor of a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund to clear all regulatory hurdles.

Updated Mar 9, 2024, 2:00 a.m. Published Oct 20, 2021, 9:08 p.m.
The Ride of the Valkyries
The Ride of the Valkyries

Valkyrie Investments’s bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) has won the blessing of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The new ETF is set to start trading on Friday, after the bitcoin-linked fund cleared the final regulatory hurdles, a Valkyrie spokesperson said. It will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker BTF on Nasdaq, despite short-lived plans to adopt the more meme-centric ticker BTFD.

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Valkyrie is only the third investment company – and the first crypto-native – to receive the Securities and Exchange Commission’s greenlight. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (stock ticker BITO) launched Tuesday. VanEck’s own bitcoin futures ETF offering is slated to trade starting early next week.

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Bitcoin spot markets rallied to new all-time highs Wednesday amid the filings parade. Bitcoin-linked ETFs are seen as an easy way for traditional investors to chase crypto market exposure from their brokerage accounts.

ProShares’ juggernaut bitcoin futures fund debut indicated interest runs deep. The first-ever U.S. bitcoin-linked ETF hauled in $570 million of assets in its first day, with over $1 billion in trading, one of the most successful ETF launches ever..

That’s complicated the playbook for all other bitcoin futures ETF hopefuls, including Valkyrie.

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KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market

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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

What to know:

  • KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
  • This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
  • Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
  • Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
  • Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

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Bitcoin and ether volatility trading gets easier with Polymarket's new contracts

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Polymarket has launched new prediction markets tied to Volmex's bitcoin and ether 30-day implied volatility indices.

What to know:

  • Polymarket has launched new prediction markets tied to Volmex's bitcoin and ether 30-day implied volatility indices, allowing users to bet on how high volatility will get in 2026.
  • The contracts pay out if volatility indices reach or exceed a preset level by Dec. 31, 2026, letting traders wager on the intensity of price swings rather than market direction.
  • Early trading implies roughly a one-in-three chance that bitcoin and ether volatility will nearly double from current levels.