Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Overbit News. In our first item of the day, we cover how one of the world's largest and most competitive brokerage firms has now kicked off its cryptocurrency offerings.
The Interactive Brokers Group, a global brokerage firm, today announced the launch of cryptocurrency trading for Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) in the United States. These RIAs will be able to trade and custody Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on behalf of their clients through Paxos Trust Company.
RIAs will have the opportunity to manage their clients' cryptocurrency positions, as well as stocks, options, futures, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs from around the world, from a single screen with customisable reporting.
"Allocating a small percentage of assets to cryptocurrency as part of a well-diversified portfolio has steadily become more commonplace, and advisors may wish to recommend cryptocurrency to their clients," said Steve Sanders, EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers. "Adding cryptocurrency trading underscores our ongoing dedication to providing advisors with the investment products and tools they need to successfully manage client portfolios and grow their businesses."
Other cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers charge fees as high as 2.00 per cent of trade value or more and add spreads or markups to the price. However, cryptocurrency trading with Paxos on Interactive Brokers' RIA platform will have low commissions of 0.12 per cent to 0.18 per cent of trade value, depending on monthly volume, and a USD 1.75 minimum per order. There are also no additional spreads, markups, or custodial costs either.
Back in September, SeekingAlpha reported that founder and chairman of Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, had been "aching to do this" regarding offering cryptocurrency trading, saying that he had "been wanting to do this for quite some time" as well. While the service is now only available to RIAs in the United States, Interactive Brokers hopes to expand it to other areas of the world in the future, so this will undoubtedly be one firm to keep an eye on in the space.
Closing out this week's edition of Overbit News, we take a look at the set-to-go-live Bitcoin futures ETF.
When we last wrote on the topic just a short few days ago, approval of a futures-based ETF for Bitcoin was fresh off the wire. Typically, institutional moves like this take quite some time to come to fruition.
However, it seems the ProShares Bitcoin ETF has moved at warp speed and is set to debut on Tuesday, 19th October. ProShares' much-anticipated ETF, which will follow the Bitcoin futures market, will begin trading on the NYSE on Tuesday under the ticker 'BITO,' according to the business.
Since 2017, at least ten asset managers have applied for permission to establish spot Bitcoin ETFs, which would allow investors to buy Bitcoin directly rather than derivatives linked to it, all of which have failed. However, in an August speech, SEC head Gary Gensler stated that he prefers investment vehicles that contain futures, prompting a flood of Bitcoin futures ETF applications.
It's important to note that ProShares is just the first in line for this month's approval process. Valkyrie, Invesco, and Van Eck have all submitted Bitcoin futures ETFs for evaluation in October.
Aside from Gensler's choice for a futures-based ETF, the market has grown significantly in the short time since the first wave of ETF applications.
"The Bitcoin market has developed to the point where the CME Bitcoin futures market is now the most important source of price discovery in the entire Bitcoin ecosystem," Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, which has its own application for a Bitcoin futures ETF in line at the SEC, added.
That's all for this week's edition of Overbit News. Thanks so much for reading, and take care until next time!