Global electronic marketplace Nasdaq is poised to list options on asset manager BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). The move, which could take effect as early as Tuesday, would give investors a new way to trade the world’s largest digital asset through derivatives.
Options For BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF
Alison Hennessy, head of exchange-traded product (ETP) listings at Nasdaq, announced the upcoming launch during an appearance on Bloomberg’s ETF IQ, stating:
Our intent at Nasdaq is to list and trade these options as early as tomorrow. Getting these options listed on IBIT into the market I think will be very exciting for investors because that’s really what we have heard from them.
The introduction of options trading comes on the heels of a recent notice from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which has cleared the path for the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) to oversee the market.
Notably, the world’s largest asset manager has been collaborating with regulatory bodies for over ten months to facilitate the introduction of these options. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF has already garnered substantial interest, accumulating nearly $30 billion in assets since its inception, making it the largest fund of its kind.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, highlighted the implications of this development, explaining that having options available on an ETF enhances trading possibilities, allowing investors to express more nuanced opinions about the asset’s future performance:
These groups of ETFs did not need this. They are successful on their own merit. But this is a pretty big tailwind to an already juggernaut situation. Options allow you have to express opinions on something with more specificity
Paul Tudor Jones’s Major Bet On BlackRock’s
Paul Tudor Jones, a prominent figure in the investment world and a long-time advocate for cryptocurrency, has revealed significant ownership in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust through a recent 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the filing, Tudor Jones now holds approximately $159.59 million worth of IBIT, equating to 4,428,230 shares. This represents a 409% increase in his holdings since his last disclosure on June 30, when he reported owning just 869,565 shares of the iShares Bitcoin ETF.
Analysts at MacroScope see the substantial IBIT positions Bitcoin as the third-largest non-options holding in Tudor’s extensive portfolio, which encompasses 2,639 positions. Only the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) at $208 million and Nvidia (NVDA) at $166 million surpass Bitcoin in his reportable assets.
Given Bitcoin’s price surge since September, MacroScope suggests that it is likely that this digital asset has now emerged as Tudor’s largest non-options position, a significant development that underscores his bullish outlook on crypto.
At the time of writing, the market’s leading digital asset is trading at $91,190, up 2% in the last 24 hours and approaching its all-time high of $93,300, which was reached last week.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com