- Bitcoin leaves behind USD 7,000 support as profit-taking reverses some of the week’s gains
- Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange lists its first Bitcoin-based fund
- Institutional investors get into the Bitcoin mining game with a New York broker settling a hashpower contract deal
Bitcoin markets slipped today, breaking below the week’s support level at USD 7,000 to fall to a daily low so far of USD 6,820, although currently, trading is inching back up towards the same support line. It hasn’t been really clear what caused the drop, but stock markets worldwide also shuddered in the same negative tones as profit-taking finally appeared attractive for investors and traders.
Still, bullish news is aplenty and one of the biggest today in North America comes from Canadian asset manager 3iQ, who is now the first firm to launch a Bitcoin-based fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
‘The Bitcoin Fund’ has taken three years to overcome legal complications but finally listed for almost 1.5 million Class A ‘QBTC.U’ shares on TSX yesterday, and are currently trading for around USD 11 each.
'The Bitcoin Fund' just launched on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This is the first public bitcoin fund listed on a major global stock exchange. Proud that @Gemini was selected as the custodian for this fund. Congrats to @3iq_corp for making history! https://t.co/YtjFqSh6K5
— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) April 9, 2020
Today, crypto entrepreneur and investor Tyler Winklevoss announced this move as a historic one, saying that TSX’s launch of The Bitcoin Fund makes it “the first public Bitcoin fund listed on a major stock exchange”. He would have said that, of course, given that his own Gemini crypto exchange is the custodian for the Fund, whose investment and portfolio manager is 3iQ.
TSX is Canada’s biggest stock exchange at the moment, recording close to USD 100 billion in monthly trade volume. The Bitcoin Fund uses price indexes provided by crypto data company CryptoCompare and VanEck Europe subsidiary MV Index Solutions.
What it means now is that mainstream investors are able to obtain Bitcoin exposure easily, without wondering about custody or security of the underlying assets. In addition, access is available to institutional investors by means of Class F shares.
3iQ had been negotiating for three years with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to obtain this approval, but TSX now lists it alongside shares of other crypto stakeholders like Bitcoin mining firm Hut8 and digital asset bank Galaxy Digital, and blockchain exchange-traded fund Horizon.
Institutional investors seem to have moved into the Bitcoin mining industry too, judging from the latest news to come out from New York. There, an upstate Bitcoin mining power plant has just sold a significant amount of computing power to an undisclosed buyer, also in Bitcoin.
The hashpower contract, worth 106 petahash, was brokered by BitOoda Digital and signals a move away from mining from established players to new market entrants. And now, big investors could be looking to purchase big blocks of Bitcoin hashpower just over-the-counter via brokers.
Today, Greenidge Generation CFO spoke of the new instrument as a new way for institutionals to enter the crypto mining sector, saying:
“The same kind of time-tested hedging capabilities seen in traditional commodity markets […] bring[ing] the benefits of clean and energy-efficient bitcoin mining from Greenidge to institutional investors throughout the United States.”
The Greenidge power plant takes up natural gas for its mining facility, drawing on up to 100 megawatts of energy every hour. This cost-efficient method means it has a dual-use case for investors, it claims: clean energy markets and crypto mining sectors.
According to them, this new form of regulated contract means that investors can eventually own Bitcoin for a better cost than if they were to obtain it on spot markets, with a physical settlement of the instrument when Bitcoin is generated by blocks found as a result of the power plant operations.
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