Bitcoin enjoyed a very positive Tuesday trading session, during which it managed to strengthen its position above the psychological level of $10,000. Having opened at $10,345.73., the digital coin had a relatively quiet trading session, as it wasn’t able to continue its recent advance. The situation changed in the afternoon, with BTC surging to as high as $10,736.10, a near two-week high.
The sharp uptick followed a report in The Wall Street Journal, claiming that VanEck Securities and SolidX Management planned to start offering shares in their VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust to institutions from Thursday. VanEck later confirmed the upcoming launch of the offering, but clarified that while the product was similar to an exchange-traded fund, it was not a true ETF.
“Unlike an ETF it isn’t listed on a national exchange, rather it is quoted on the OTC Link ATS platform. This is a first-of-its-kind type of offering,” Ed Lopez, head of ETF product at VanEck, told industry website Coindesk. “Given it will trade over-the-counter via broker-to-broker transactions, we’ve been casually referring to it as a Broker Traded Fund, a BTF.”
While the firms’ actual Bitcoin ETF proposal awaits approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), VanEck and SolidX are taking advantage of a SEC exemption that enables them to sell shares of their Bitcoin trust to “qualified institutional buyers”. The SEC have to announce its decision on the ETF proposal by October 18.
Bitcoin closed yesterday’s session at $10,623.54, nothing up its highest close since August 20. The coin has edged lower in today’s morning session, but has held above the $10,500 mark.
As of 11:40 BST, the Bitcoin price stood at $10,556.63, up 1.8% from the same time yesterday. The coin’s total market capitalisation currently stands at $189.1 billion.
Featured image: Visual Generation / Shutterstock.com
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