(Bloomberg) -- Investors looking to trade ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF outside of regular U.S. market hours can do so exclusively on Blue Ocean Technologies’ new alternative-trading platform.
Blue Ocean will allow its broker-dealer clients across the globe to trade the first U.S. Bitcoin-linked ETF on its system between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. New York time, President and Chief Operating Officer Brian Hyndman said in an interview. The company will begin trading the ETF on Tuesday night.
“We are giving investors the opportunity to manage their risk on a 24-hour cycle,” he said. That will fill the eight-hour gap “when other exchanges can’t.”
ProShares made its trading debut Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BITO amid strong investor demand for crypto. The fund is based on futures contracts and is covered by mutual-fund rules that Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has said provide “significant investor protections.”
Blue Ocean’s platform will facilitate trading of ProShares with its broker-dealer clients, including many based in Asia and the U.S. West Coast. One client, Virtu Financial Inc., has committed to make a “two-sided market” in the ETF through Blue Ocean, the company said.
There are other applications for Bitcoin-based ETFs in the wings. Grayscale Investments LLC has filed an application to convert the world’s biggest Bitcoin fund into an ETF.
“We weren’t sure when the approval” for a Bitcoin ETF would come, “but we wanted to be well positioned when it did,” Hyndman said. With others in the pipeline, Blue Ocean expects there will be more crypto-based products to offer on its platform.
“This is the first of many that will be coming out,” he said.
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