ProShares dismisses concerns over cost of tracking futures

ProShares, the issuer of the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) linked to bitcoin futures in the United States, said it fears that the costs associated with trading derivatives could lead to a tracking errors are unfounded. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy Fund began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2021, allowing investors to gain exposure to bitcoin (BTC) without having to own the cryptocurrency. The ETF, the world’s largest crypto fund, invests in regulated, cash-settled futures contracts listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Early on, observers speculated that BITO and other futures-based ETFs would significantly underperform bitcoin due to the costs associated with rolling over or selling expiring futures contracts and buying the next set. “Worries about rolling costs are misguided; BITO has closely followed the price of bitcoin since its inception,” Simeon Hyman, global investment strategist at ProShares, told CoinDesk in an email interview.