Crypto currencies went into a dive this week, with losses as high as 50 per cent as markets lost confidence in the sector.
In Australia, the sweeping change in sentiment hit the first cryptocurrency ETFs to trade on Australian exchanges, with their opening behind described as “underwhelming”.
On the Cboe Australia exchange – previously Chi-X – of the three listed, it was ETF Securities’ 21Shares Bitcoin product which managed the highest volume, some $955,000.
The 21Shares Ethereum ETF managed $604,000 in traded volume, while bitcoin fund Cosmos Purpose Bitcoin Access ETF made $454,000.
The timing couldn’t have been worse.
The Economist carried a lead story claiming “Crypto cracks” and reported: “More than half the market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies has been wiped out since November.
“On May 12th bitcoin traded at around $29,000, just 40% of its all-time high in November; ether has slumped by a similar amount.
“The share price of the leading crypto-industry stock, Coinbase, an exchange, is half what it was a week ago, falling 26% in a single day after it reported earnings and disclosed that users’ deposits on its platform were not necessarily protected in the event that the firm went bust.”
The value of bitcoin has plunged in the last seven days and was worth $US28,000 ($40,700) yesterday.
“We are closely monitoring the demand of cryptocurrency ETFs and proactively speaking to our customers about the opportunity these instruments present, however, at this early stage we have decided not offer these on the nabtrade platform,” Adrian Hanley of nabtrade told The Australian.