With CME Group and Cboe Global Markets already in the bitcoin game, Intercontinental Exchange's NYSE Group is seeking its own piece of the action.
No, traders won't be trading bitcoins on the floor of the iconic New York Stock Exchange at the intersection of Wall and Broad. Rather, traders would be able to make bets on the cryptocurrency via five separate exchange-traded funds linked to the price of bitcoin futures traded on CME and Cboe.
In a Jan. 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, ICE unit NYSE Arca requested regulatory approval to list and trade the shares of the Direxion Daily Bitcoin Bear 1X Shares, Direxion Daily Bitcoin 1.25X Bull Shares, Direxion Daily Bitcoin 1.5X Bull Shares, Direxion Daily Bitcoin 2X Bull Shares, and Direxion Daily Bitcoin 2X Bear Shares.
The higher the number, the braver the traders needs to be. The multiples in the ETF names indicate leverage, making for a souped-up trading vehicle that can result in profits (or losses) of as much as twice the change in the value of bitcoin.
The ETFs are targeted at market participants with short time horizons. "Each Fund will seek daily correlation to the target benchmark and should not be expected to track the performance of the target benchmark for any period longer than one business day," NYSE Arca said in the filing.
