Direxion Withdraws Application for Short Bitcoin Futures ETF

Exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer Direxion has withdrawn its application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list a fund that would have maintained short exposure to bitcoin futures contracts issued by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

• On Tuesday, Direxion requested that the SEC to withdraw the ETF application it made on Oct. 26.
• SEC staff had asked for the filing be withdrawn on the day it was filed.
• The Direxion Bitcoin Strategy Bear ETF would have maintained short exposure to bitcoin futures contracts – in essence, betting that the price of the cryptocurrency would fall.
• Shorting is a way of betting that a price will decline. An investor borrows a security and sells it in the hope the price will have dropped by the time the investor has to repurchase the security and return it to the lender. The borrower can then pocket the difference.

Read more: SEC Rejects VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Proposal