ProShares Seeks to Expand Bitcoin ETF Offerings with Five New Leveraged and Inverse Funds

ProShares has filed prospectus materials for five leveraged and inverse bitcoin ETFs days after the US SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs. Spot Bitcoin ETFs trading which began on January 11, has already seen massive trading volumes, reaching billions of dollars.

The newly introduced ProShares funds include the ProShares Plus Bitcoin ETF, ProShares Ultra Bitcoin ETF, ProShares UltraShort Bitcoin ETF, Proshares Short Bitcoin ETF, and ProShares ShortPlus Bitcoin ETF. Notably, one of these funds aims to achieve daily investment results corresponding to twice the daily performance of the Bloomberg Galaxy Bitcoin Index.

ProShares just filed for a bunch of leveraged spot bitcoin ETFs. RexShares also filed for a bunch a few weeks ago too. There could have up to a dozen of these on the market in a few months. https://t.co/VDDbBCc9dn

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 16, 2024

Unlike some spot bitcoin ETFs, two of ProShares’ funds do not directly invest in bitcoin, and three do not take a direct short position on the cryptocurrency, as outlined in the filed prospectus materials.

The recently approved Bitcoin exchange traded-funds have traded almost $10 billion total in just over 3 days. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas compared the volume of recent launched funds with other ETFs launched last year. He tweeted, “there were 500 ETFs launched in 2023. Today, they did a combined $450m in volume. The best one did $45m.”

BITO traded more shares than any of the new spot bitcoin ETFs on January 11, 88 million shares ($2 billion).

NYSE Files to List Options on Spot Bitcoin ETFs

Simultaneously, the New York Stock Exchange has filed a 19b-4, seeking approval for the listing and trading of options on Commodity-Based Trust Shares, specifically for spot bitcoin ETFs. This move aims to expand the market for these financial instruments.

Analyst Balchunas tweeted that NYSE filed the 19b-4 to be able to list options on spot bitcoin ETFs. All three exchanges had to file a 19b-4. Earliest approval in 2mo-ish, he added.

This is a filing to be able to list options on spot bitcoin ETFs. All three exchanges had to file a 19b-4 (here we go again lol). Earliest approval in 2mo-ish. Commodity trusts like $GLD et al had to do the same thing. Options will likely be a big hit on these given the… https://t.co/gsMQO8DClq

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 16, 2024

Grayscale Investments has also entered the arena by filing for a covered call ETF. This new ETF seeks to generate income from a position in its converted GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust) and adds another dimension to the diverse range of bitcoin-related investment products entering the market.