VanEck’s Bitcoin Strategy ETF sees a slow start after issue

After weeks of waiting, VanEck’s Bitcoin Strategy ETF (XBTF) finally began trading on the Chicago Board of Exchange and on its first day had a trading volume of $4.6 million paling significantly against other similar ETFs that began trading last month.

VanEck’s ETF has a slow start to life

Data from investing.com revealed that shares of XBTF had closed the day at around $59.73 and had been traded 44,698 times which was roughly $4.8 million and also saw around $10 million in assets under management (AUM).

Judging by this, it means the VanEck’s ETF was only able to attract a minimal amount of interest from investors who had swamped ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF on its opening day. You’ll recall that ProShares recorded a trading volume of about $1 billion on its opening day.

Speaking on the VanEck launch, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Australian exchange Swyftx, Tommy Horan, acknowledged that the VanEck launch was weak but noted that there was nothing to worry about. According to him, by lowering its fees, the ETF could be able to attract more inflows by next quarter.

$XBTF traded about $5m on Day One. Normally that would be pretty good, prob Top 10% of launches this year. It’s just shadowed by the absurd $1b $BITO laid down, not to mention $78m that $BTF did. pic.twitter.com/bjqrUnThzr

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 16, 2021

Eric Balchunas, the senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, in a tweet revealed that XBTF’s trading volume would still rank among the top 10% of this year, however, its feat would be overshadowed because competitors like Proshares and Valkyrie were able to pull $1 billion and $78 million respectively.

The rising numbers of Bitcoin futures ETF

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved the listing of the ProShares ETF in the United States. Since its approval, the commission has gone on to approve two other ETFs – VanEck and Valkyrie – for the market.

While analysts and market experts have argued that the approved ETFs might not really track Bitcoin’s price nor provide a direct exposure to the digital asset, many would agree that the acceptance of these investment vehicles is an indication of the growing maturity of the crypto space.

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