Asset management firm VanEck will close and liquidate its Bitcoin futures ETF “XBTF,” less than two years after its initial launch.
In an announcement posted on January 17th, VanEck announced that its board of trustees had approved the liquidation.
The company will now liquidate and dissolve its XBTF Bitcoin futures ETF on the Cboe BZX Exchange, where it had been listed since November 2021.
The determination was made approximately one week after the asset management firm obtained approval from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to list shares of its spot BTC ETF.
The company noted that the decision to liquidate XBTF came after evaluating several factors, such as performance and investor interest.
“VanEck continuously monitors and evaluates its ETF offerings across a number of factors, including performance, liquidity, assets under management, and investor interest, among others,” the company said in its announcement. “The decision was made to liquidate the Fund based on an analysis of these factors and other operational considerations.”
The asset manager mentioned that shareholders would retain the ability to sell their shares of the Bitcoin Strategy ETF until January 30, and noted that XBTF is scheduled to be delisted by February 6.
Holders who choose not to sell before the delisting will receive a distribution of cash on February 6.
XBTF was among several ETFs holding Bitcoin futures contracts that started trading in late 2021. As per VanEck’s website, the fund manages approximately $53 million in assets.
Interest in Bitcoin ETFs Will “Spike”
The company’s Director of Digital Assets Product Kyle DaCruz said that interest in crypto products and Bitcoin ETFs was “only going to spike” after the SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs last week.
“I think from here on out, it’s going to just be continued interest and demand,” DaCruz said during a panel on VettaFi’s Cryptocurrency Symposium on January 12.
DaCruz mentioned that due to various market issues, including instances of fraud, interest in Bitcoin had been subdued, and this response was justified. However, he added, “now that these regulated products have come to market, interest is only going to spike.”
The VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL) was among the 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs that debuted last week, entering the market with an initial seed capital of $72.5 million.
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