On the first day of the Bitcoin ETF’s operation, the old law came into play: “Buy on rumors, sell on news.” There was a lot of haymaking on centralized exchanges. The amount of liquidations amounted to $313 million. Now, mostly ETF optimists, that is, longs, have been shaved for $257 and shorts for $55 million.
The largest liquidations were on OKX, $5.6 million, in second place was Binance with $3.4 million. The largest percentage of ETF-optimists (longers) on the TOP 3 exchanges was on Bybit – 80.65%. But Bitmex was ahead of everyone in terms of optimism, although not in terms of volume. On Bitmex, 100% of liquidations were from long traders. There were no shorts at all.
Well, of course. As usual in such a situation, the main financial market players tried to bring in some FUD.
Several major investment firms, including Vanguard, are prohibiting clients from trading spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
“Our view is that these products are not consistent with our offering across asset classes such as stocks, bonds and cash,” the company explained.
Disappointed with Vanguard’s stance on spot Bitcoin ETFs, clients said they closed their Vanguard accounts and transferred their funds to platforms such as Fidelity to access these newly approved products.
A number of users have also reported that Vanguard is now only allowing them to sell their Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) holdings, although they were previously able to buy them. Thus, Vanguard puts pressure on the market, causing the price of Bitcoin to decrease.
Several other investment banks, including UBS, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and Edward Jones, also reportedly refrained from offering spot Bitcoin ETFs to their clients on day one. Some of these players plan to offer access in the future, perhaps under certain conditions, while others have not indicated their position.
Now is an important moment for all participants in financial markets. If the departure of clients to funds that support the launch of Bitcoin ETFs becomes widespread, the rest will be forced to also apply for approval of their own Bitcoin ETF funds or slowly die.