Last week in review: Price of Bitcoin soars following ETF introduction

The price of Bitcoin eclipsed its previous all-time high in what was one of crypto’s most historical weeks yet. Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange listed its first ever bitcoin ETF, institutional investment gathered steam, and Tesla revealed its holding gains for 2021.

It was a big week in crypto. Catch up on all the biggest stories to come from it!

First US Bitcoin ETF launches

• The first Bitcoin ETF listed on the New York Stock Exchange was ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF. Backed by bitcoin futures, the ETF raked in roughly $520 million on its opening day. The fund also saw about $1 billion of trading volume.

• Dave Nadig, chief investment officer and director of research of ETF Trends, said that most of the trading volume likely came from retail investors, as there were only a handful of large “block” trades that are typical of big institutional players.

• “This is probably going to be what we all expected, which is it’s an access vehicle for certain players in the marketplace,” said Nadig.

• Soon after the launch, the price of Bitcoin broke its previous all-time high of $64,804 set in April this year, peaking at $66,974 on 20 October.

Bank of America adds more firms to crypto research list

• Bank of America (BofA) has added a further 23 stocks to its equities research, “that may see market value expansion due to digital asset exposure,” according to a recent research note.

• Earlier in October, the US bank launched a digital research team with a report listing 20 companies, and said that its research aims to “explore the implications across industries including finance, technology, supply chains, social media and gaming.”

• In the latest research report to come from BofA, analysts cited a range of firms from credit card companies to social media juggernauts, including American Express and Facebook.

• They also reiterated that at $2.5 trillion in market value and more than 200 million users, “the digital asset universe is too large to ignore.”

Tesla reveal holding profits in Q3 report

• Tesla’s latest earnings report has revealed Elon Musk’s clean energy company has profited $1 billion from holding bitcoin.

• According to a Q1 filing with the SEC, Tesla declared the value of its Bitcoin amounted to $2.48 billion, and its carrying value—the original price it paid for its bitcoin—was $1.33 billion by the end of Q1. Tesla then sold off roughly 10% of its holdings “to prove the liquidity of Bitcoin as an alternative to holding cash on a balance sheet.”

• This sale saw Tesla profit by $101 million, meaning the monetary value of the bitcoin it sold was over $270 million. After this exercise, Tesla had around 42,000 bitcoin remaining, which was bought when the price of one BTC was $31,620.

• Amid last week’s highs, one Bitcoin was worth in excess of $66,000, meaning that Tesla holdings were worth roughly $2.67 billion, and have gained more than a billion dollars in value since Q1.