The New York Stock Exchange wants to launch new Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) - related exchange-traded funds (ETF), Business Insider reported.
The funds planned by ETF-maker Direxion Asset Management, are designed to track trading in Bitcoin futures markets, not Bitcoin itself.
The leveraged ETFs, according to the filing, seek to provide investors returns that multiply returns in the underlying market.
"The 1.25X Bull Fund, 1.5X Bull Fund, and 2X Bull Fund ... seeks daily leveraged investment results (before fees and expenses) that correlate positively to either 125%, 150%, or 200% the daily return of the target benchmark," said the filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to the Registration Statement, the Funds will offer investors the opportunity to obtain daily short, leveraged long or leveraged short exposure to the lead month Bitcoin futures contract traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (“CME”) or on Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (“CBOE”) or on any other U.S. exchange that subsequently trades Bitcoin futures contracts.
"Investors will likely see these leveraged products as a way to profit on price moves without taking either the security risks of buying actual Bitcoin or having approved accounts to trade futures," Dave Weisberger, the CEO of CoinRoutes, a cryptocurrency market structure company, told Business Insider.
If approved by the SEC, they would trade on NYSE Arca, a secondary marketplace. The exchange said the products would "enhance competition among market participants, to the benefit of investors and the marketplace."