Tomorrow Is The Most Important Day Of The Year

For on that day, which shall go down in history, you shall gain the ability to trade bitcoins without trading bitcoins or even having bitcoins traded on your behalf.

Author:
Jon Shazar
Publish date:
Oct 18, 2021

For on that day, which shall go down in history, you shall gain the ability to trade bitcoins without trading bitcoins or even having bitcoins traded on your behalf.

What began in the exceedingly self-regarding minds of two very tall assholes—and which, in a very real way, remains there—has borne fruit. For tomorrow marks an epoch in world history. Tomorrow, the trajectory of the human race changes forever.

“2021 will be remembered for this milestone,” said Michael Sapir, the C.E.O. of ProShares.

That’s right: Move over, coup attempts! Forget about the pandemic and miraculous vaccine! Ignore the ignominious end of America’s 20-year misadventure in Afghanistan! For tomorrow, the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund is at long last upon us.

Well, sort of.

The much-anticipated ETF from ProShares, which will track the bitcoin futures market, will begin trading Tuesday on the NYSE under the ticker “BITO,” the company confirmed…. Investing in a futures-based ETF would not be the same thing as investing directly in bitcoin…. A futures-based ETF tracks cash-settled futures contracts, not the price of the asset itself.

It is a distinction that appears not to matter much to investors.

The price of bitcoin climbed more than 2% on Monday to $62,041.84, according to Coin Metrics. Many investors are watching to see if bitcoin will jump above $64,800 this week to reach a new all-time high.

And, you know, really, why should it?

Tether Ltd., the largest stablecoin issuer, agreed to pay a federal regulator a $41 million penalty Friday…. The CFTC said that from at least mid-2016 to Feb. 25, 2019, Tether “misrepresented to customers and the market” that it held U.S. dollar reserves in bank accounts for all of its stablecoins, dubbed USDTs, in circulation. In reality, Tether held equivalent dollar reserves in its accounts “for only 27.6% of the days in a 26-month sample time period,” the CFTC said.

First bitcoin futures ETF to make its debut Tuesday on the NYSE, ProShares says [CNBC]
Bitcoin Comes to the Big Board [DealBook]
Stablecoin Giant Tether Hit With $41 Million Fine in Latest Crypto Crackdown [WSJ]

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