By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 26th, 2024
The first Bitcoin ETF in Canada went live on Thursday. In the first hour, around $80M shares were traded. By the end of the day, $165M shares had been exchanged.
The crypto community ended last week with exciting news after the approval of North America’s first Bitcoin ETF. Although Bitcoin interest in Canada is not as high compared to the like of the US, India, or Japan, the real excitement stemmed from the fact that the US was likely to follow the trend. But so far, has the Canadian Bitcoin ETF been a hit or a miss?
In the first hour of trading, around $80M in shares had been traded. Within those first few hours, a flurry of trades sent the Purpose Investments ETF (ticker BTCC) to the top ten traded securities on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Everything looked strong, and interest bullishly ideal. But in the hours that followed, the excitement seemed to die down. In the hours that followed, trades only managed to hit $165M.
A Bitcoin ETF is one of the best ways for retail investors to get exposure to Bitcoin. One of the main concerns that made Canadian regulators reluctant and is still the reason for the US rejecting one, is Bitcoin’s rapid price fluctuations. But this notorious behavior was missing on Thursday.
Although in the last year Bitcoin has increased 5 times, there was little to report on BTCC’s first day of trading. Bitcoin has been moving sideways just below $52,000. Normally, this stalemate leads to trading volume dropping. As prices begin to set a trend, BTCC trading volume might pick up.
Bitcoin ETF Approval by the US in 2021
The recent approval of the Purpose Investments ETF has revived the excitement around Bitcoin ETFs and the chance that the first one will be approved in the US. Several companies including Gemini, VanEck Associates Corp, and Bitwise Asset Management are still amending and submitting to the SEC. The SEC has continued to give two main reasons for their rejection.
The first has been Bitcoin’s volatility. Those who have argued on Bitcoin’s behalf have pointed out that price fluctuations are not uncommon in the stock market which has been most evident with Tesla’s surge in 2020 as it gained over 500%.
The second primary reason has been manipulation. The SEC believes that Bitcoin can easily be manipulated by a few players. But as illustrated by the GameStock fiasco, the stock market has always been manipulated by a few top players.
On top of this SEC hypocrisy being exposed in the last year, the recent institutional interest and the precedent set by Canada is tipped to finally be enough to sway the SEC to approve the first Bitcoin ETF in the US this year.
