Bitcoin ETF Competition “Getting Wild” As ProShares Files For 5 Leveraged And Inverse ETFs

Updated: 17 January 2024

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ProShares filed prospectus materials for five leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Tuesday, just a few days after spot Bitcoin ETFs started trading in the US.

“Quickly getting wild,” said Nate Geraci, president of investment advisor The ETF Store, in reference to the aggressive products. “Vanguard definitely won’t have these on their platform,” he added, referring to the fund manager’s decision to block access to Bitcoin ETFs.

ProShares’ Filing Comes Days After BTC ETF Launches

The filing shows that ProShares’s funds are named Proshares Plus Bitcoin ETF, ProShares UltraShort Bitcoin ETF, ProShares Ultra Bitcoin ETF, ProShares ShortPlus Bitcoin ETF and ProShares Short Bitcoin ETF.

The prospectus materials revealed that one of the funds “seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (2x) of the daily performance of the Bloomberg Galaxy Bitcoin Index.”

The documents also stated that two of the funds will not invest directly in Bitcoin, while the remaining three will not directly short the leading cryptocurrency. ProShares’ filing follows the launch of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, which all began trading on Jan. 11.

Collectively, these ETFs have already generated billions in trading volume.

Vanguard Not Interested In Spot Bitcoin ETFs

The $7.2 trillion asset manager Vanguard, the second biggest asset manager in the world behind BlackRock, told the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 11 that it has no interest in offering ETFs to its clients.

The investment product does not align with the company’s focus on ”asset classes such as equities, bonds, and cash, which Vanguard views as the building blocks of a well-balanced long-term investment portfolio,” it said.

Wow. It is worse than I thought. I called and the answer I received was "Currently we aren't allowing those to be purchased as it doesn't fit with Vanguard's investment philosophy."

Me: "Ok but you let me buy GBTC in the past."

Him: "Yes I believe you can only sell that now."

— Tony Spencer (@notsleepy) January 11, 2024

Vanguard’s decision provoked criticism from customers. Coinbase engineer, Yuga Cohler, was one of the client’s outraged by the asset manager’s decision. Cohler subsequently said that he will move his eight years’ worth of 401K savings from Vanguard to Fidelity, calling Vanguard’s decision “paternalistic.”