North America’s first publicly traded bitcoin (ETF) fund traded on Thursday, its first trading day.
About $ 165 million worth of shares in the newly created ETF changed investor hands in less than a day, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The fund, which is managed by Canada-based Purpose Investments, has experienced a flood of demand where trading volumes have reached well above the typical day-one ETF limit in the country, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart.
An ETF bitcoin in the United States has been highly valued by names like VanEck and Valkyrie, but has not yet made its debut in the United States due to regulators’ concerns about the volatility of the nascent asset class and the manipulation of the industry.
Several closed bitcoin funds have been listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, like those listed by Canadian investment manager 3iQ. However, they differ from an ETF.
The fund seeks to replicate the price performance of the bellwether cryptocurrency while units of its shares are currently changing hands for around CAD $ 10.17 ($ 8.00).
UPDATE (February 19, 5:55 PM UTC): Restores assignment discarded inadvertently.