On October 19, 2021, the ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF (BITO) began trading. Many people in the cryptocurrency community reacted very positively to the news.

There is somethings that needs to be kept in mind. This ETF will trade and settle only in front-month Bitcoin futures contracts that are cash-settled contracts that re not related to actual commodities futures contracts. What this means is that there is no delivery of "physical bitcoin". See this article

The conclusion here is that this ETF will be used to speculate with bitcoin and will not bring demand value to it. Dollars that could be spent in buying the actual commodity will not increase its value.

My opinion is that bitcoin should still be bought and traded as bitcoin. Holding gold may be difficult due to security concerns. Nowadays there are good wallets (hot and cold) that can keep bitcoin safely (avoiding exchanges to keep bitcoin, of course)

This post is intended to only raise awareness. In order to make actual financial decisions please contact your financial advisor and/or tax advisor prior to making the decision.