Popular agricultural exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider Teucrium is joining a long queue of Bitcoin ETF hopefuls.

The filing made on Thursday to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) looks to track a benchmark of Bitcoin futures contracts. If approved, the proposed ETF named Teucrium Bitcoin Futures Fund (BCFU) will be publicly tradable on New York Stock Exchange's subsidiary Arca.

According to Teucrium, the BCFU would provide a cost-effective means through which investors can gain exposure to the volatile asset class. The Vermont-based ETF issuer also said that the proposed fund might show a disparity of figures between its shares and the spot price of Bitcoin as it is tracking the cost of the Benchmark Bitcoin Futures Contract and not directly investing in the digital asset.

This is the first crypto asset ETF proposal the agricultural ETF provider has filed. Its repository offers investors access to agricultural produce ETFs like Teucrium Soybean Fund, Teucrium Sugar Fund, Teucrium Wheat Fund, Teucrium Corn Fund, and the Teucrium Agricultural Fund.

Bitcoin ETFs have become the new mania in the US, given the surge of cryptocurrencies in the past few months. The world's oldest cryptocurrency, which traded as low as $6,000 in 2018, has surged to over $64,000 three years after rising 90% in 2021 alone.

This exponential growth has seen the nascent industry cross the trillion-dollar mark in a few years.

Institutional investments have aided the growth of cryptocurrencies, but the underlying risks and volatility have made many others stand by the sidelines watching.

This is primarily due to the lack of regulatory oversight by the US government, and the regulatory uncertainty surrounding these virtual currencies has not helped issues.

ETFs are expected to serve as an indirect means to gain exposure to digital assets. A Bitcoin ETF would enable investors to track the price of BTC without necessarily worrying about the storage and other related complexities of owning digital assets.

Futures, on the other hand, would focus on the future price of the tracked asset.

One of the well-known futures issuers in the crypto space is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) which launched Bitcoin Futures in 2017 and Bitcoin Micro Futures in 2021. It also launched Ethereum Futures in Feb of this year.

Despite the growing proposals on the SEC’s table, there has not been any indication that the regulator will approve any filing anytime soon.

The recent appointment of former MIT scholar Gary Gensler seemed promising, but the recent comments of the former crypto instructor have left little to be desired.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Gensler noted that the crypto market is highly “speculative” and needs to be regulated.

Teucrium joins a long list of ETFs like VanEck, NYDIG, and Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyCapital looking for approval.

Similar to Notcoin - Blum - Airdrops In 2024

origin »

203 +