- ProShares' bitcoin futures fund lost investors $1.2 billion after a smash debut last year.
- The Bitcoin Strategy ETF pulled in $1.8 billion, but it now has just $614 million AUM, per Morningstar.
The first publicly-traded bitcoin futures fund has burned a record billion-dollar hole in investors' pockets during its initial year of trading.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF broke records after listing as BITO on the NYSE in October last year. It became the fastest ETF to eclipse the $1 billion mark in assets under management, with $1.1 billion in inflows in just two days.
It went on to draw in $1.8 billion of inflows over the following 12 months, according to Morningstar Direct data.
But as of Wednesday, its AUM stood at just $614 million — a loss for investors or just under $1.2 billion, the research firm found. The debut-year loss is bigger than that for any other ETF in history, it said.
At the same time, the fund's share price has fallen 70%, putting it in the bottom ranks of ETF performers, as uncertainty around the path of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes dampened investors' appetite for risky assets.
ProShares' fund made its stock-market debut at a time when investors' interest in cryptocurrencies was surging, and bitcoin hit a then-record high of $67,000 on the week that it launched.
Since then, digital assets have become mired in a prolonged slump referred to as a "crypto winter" by analysts and investors.
Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, has crashed about 70% from its level of $66,002 when BITO listed, trading at $20,536 on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Other bitcoin futures funds have fared similarly. Valkyrie's Bitcoin Strategy ETF is down about 65% since it debuted in November, while Global X's listed Blockchain and Bitcoin Strategy ETF has fallen 75% in the same timeframe.
An ETF – or exchange-traded fund – offers investors exposure to a specific asset class, sector, or theme.
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