After Bitcoin plummeted 70%, the first short-selling ETF in the United States came out. The cryptocurrency winter is not over yet?

Bears who think the cryptocurrency crash isn't over yet have a new tool to bet on Bitcoin's fall. Financial institution ProShares on Tuesday launched a short bitcoin strategy ETF (symbol BITI), the first bitcoin-pegged inverse ETF in the United States.

Bears who think the cryptocurrency crash isn't over has got a new tool to bet on Bitcoin's fall.

Financial institution ProShares on Tuesday launched a short bitcoin strategy ETF (symbol BITI), the first bitcoin-pegged inverse ETF in the United States. By inversely tracking the performance of the bitcoin futures index, the ETF hopes to provide a relatively cheap and easy way for investors to profit from further declines in bitcoin.

When BITI came out, due to the aggressive interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve to fight inflation, risk assets were sold off sharply, and the crypto currency circle was going through a "bloody storm". The scary thing is that in this sell-off, even those long-term holders are starting to cut their holdings.

This weekend, the price of Bitcoin once fell below the $20,000 mark before rebounding. As of now, bitcoin prices are about 70% below their November highs.

This means that the new ETF may have missed the best time to profit from Bitcoin's rout. But ProShares' idea is that making it easier to short bitcoin will encourage more investors to express negative views on the cryptocurrency.

“We think there are a lot of investors who are short- and long-term bearish on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, but aren’t acting on their ideas because it’s too difficult or too expensive,” said ProShares CEO Michael Sapir. “These investors will be able to take a short bitcoin position as easily as they would buy an ETF in a traditional brokerage account.”

In October last year, ProShares launched the first Bitcoin-linked ETF in the United States, the Bitcoin Strategy ETF (symbol BITO). It caused a stir when it launched, but unfortunately, the digital asset boom peaked shortly after the ETF went public and then began to decline.

It is understood that BITI is the first short-selling cryptocurrency ETF in the United States. The fund company Horizons ETF launched the world's first short-selling Bitcoin ETF last year and was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada. At present, ProShares competitors Direxion and AXS are also preparing to launch bitcoin short ETFs.

Cryptocurrency sell-off may continue

Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of U.S. futures trading platform BitMEX, said recently that $20,000 represents Bitcoin’s price support level, and if it is breached, it will trigger “enormous selling pressure.”

Sam Callahan, a bitcoin analyst at bitcoin exchange Swan, believes that based on previous bear market experience, bitcoin may fall by more than 80% from its all-time high, which means bitcoin will fall to $13,800.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive of DoubleLine Capital, known as the "new debt king," said last week that he wouldn't be surprised if bitcoin fell to $10,000.

Source：golden finance