First Centrally Cleared Short Bitcoin ETP Launched on Deutsche Boerse Xetra

A new Bitcoin-focused Exchange Traded Product (ETP) will now allow accredited investors to speculate on negative Bitcoin price movements, according to a press release on Monday.

Switzerland’s 21Shares, the issuer of over eleven cryptocurrency ETPs, announced its new Short Bitcoin ETP (SBTC) (Ticker: 21XS) will be available to trade on Deutsche Boerse Xetra starting September 1st.

With its listing, the SBTC becomes the world’s first centrally cleared short Bitcoin product that is admitted to Deutsche Boerse Xetra’s regulated market. The ETP reduces counterparty risk—the possibility that the other party may not honor a trade—for both institutional and retail investors when trading with their conventional brokers.

Interested accredited parties can buy and sell the ETP on the same day without pertinent wait times or cool-off periods between two trades. This allows investors to protect themselves and hedge exposure to Bitcoin’s daily price movements while remaining invested in the asset for the long term.

“Investors are now in a position to implement any Bitcoin strategy in a safe, regulated, and conventional manner using a product that allows them to participate in the downwards movement of Bitcoin,” explained Hany Rashwan, the CEO of 21Shares.

21Shares said direct access to investing in crypto assets is often still facilitated through unregulated crypto exchanges, which are “frequently in the news due to various lack of internal controls and financial structures lacking integrity which resulted in higher spreads, increased counterparty risk, and large price premiums.”

But the launch did not come easy. Laurent Kassis, managing director of 21Shares, said the product came after “a lot of lobbying with regulators” in Europe to legally approve, define, and regulate the SBTC product.

Kassis added, “the one missing trading product was to deliver a fully transparent financial instrument to capitalize on negative price movements within a complete regulated framework.”

All 21Shares crypto ETPs—including the new SBTC—can be purchased via any broker or a bank with access to the Boerse Frankfurt.