Horizons launches synthetic long and short bitcoin ETFs

Apr 16th, 2021 | By | Category: Alternatives / Multi-Asset

Toronto-headquartered Horizons ETFs has launched a pair of new funds providing long or short exposure to bitcoin through the use of futures contracts.

Steve Hawkins, President and CEO of Horizons ETFs.

Steve Hawkins, President and CEO of Horizons ETFs.

The BetaPro Bitcoin ETF (CAD: HBIT CN; USD: HBIT.U CN) and BetaPro Inverse Bitcoin ETF (CAD: BITI CN; USD: BITI.U CN) have listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

BITI is the world’s first ETF to provide inverse exposure to bitcoin futures.

Steve Hawkins, President and CEO of Horizons ETFs, said: “There has been a lot of interest in bitcoin in the last year but it is an asset class that has historically been very volatile and complex for investors to get access to, especially when compared to buying ETFs.

“HBIT and BITI provide ETF options with daily liquidity that allow investors to take either a long or short position in the asset class.

Hawkins added: “Buying HBIT and BITI is as easy as buying any stock or other ETF through a broker and doesn’t require investors to open up separate cryptocurrency accounts. Additionally, BITI will offer a way for investors to achieve short exposure to bitcoin without having to use a margin account or shorting futures directly.”

HBIT and BITI provide long and inverse exposure, respectively, to the Horizons Bitcoin Front Month Rolling Futures Index, a proprietary index developed by Horizons and independently calculated by Germany-headquartered Solactive.

The index reflects the return from investing in front-month CME Bitcoin (USD) Futures contracts traded on the CME Futures Exchange, a US-registered designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization.

The bitcoin futures are priced based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate which aggregates bitcoin trading activity across major bitcoin spot trading venues.

HBIT and BITI come with management fees of 1.00% and 1.45%, respectively.

Canada has recently welcomed the listings of several directly backed bitcoin ETFs. These include the $1.0 billion Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC.U CN) which comes with a management fee of 1.00%, as well as Evolve FundsBitcoin ETF (EBIT CN) and the CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCX.U CN) which come with management fees of 0.75% and 0.40%, respectively and each house around $100 million.

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