The team at a $70-billion-AUM fund firm is rolling out two more bitcoin-related ETFs.

Michael Lynn Sapir ProShare Advisors, ProFund Advisors CEO

Yesterday, Michael Sapir, CEO of ProShares [profile], unveiled the launch of the ProShares Ultra Bitcoin ETF (BITU on the NYSE Arca) and the ProShares UltraShort Bitcoin ETF (SBIT). Both new funds are series of the ProShares Trust.

SBIT and BITU come with the same expense ratio: 95 basis points. The two ETFs' inception date was yesterday.

Bethesda, Maryland-based ProShare Advisors will serve as investment advisor to BITU and SBIT, while Bloomberg Index Services Limited (BIS) will serve as index administrator and provider. The funds' PM team includes: George Banian, portfolio manager; and Alexander Ilyasov, senior PM.

BITU is designed to return double the daily returns of the Bloomberg Bitcoin Index, while SBIT is designed to double the inverse of that index's daily returns. The ProShares team claims that SBIT and BITU are the first ETFs to target their particular bitcoin exposure levels.

SBIT does not directly short bitcoin, and BITU doesn't directly invest in the cryptocurrency. Instead, the two ETFs are designed to invest primarily in bitcoin-related swap agreements and in "high quality, short-term money market instruments."

"BITU and SBIT are designed to address the challenge of acquiring leveraged or short exposure to bitcoin, which can be onerous and expensive," Sapir states.

The launch of SBIT and BITU (which expands ProShares' cryptocurrency-focused lineup of ETFs to six in total) comes less than three months after several other firms launched the first spot bitcoin ETPs. In contrast with those spot bitcoin ETPs, SBIT and BITU are both '40 Act funds.

BITU and SBIT's other service providers include: ACA Group as provider of a principal financial officer and treasurer; Citi Fund Services Ohio, Inc. as regulatory administration services provider; JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. as administrator, custodian, and index receipt agent; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) as independent accounting firm; Ropes & Gray LLP as counsel; and SEI Investments Distribution Co. as distributor and principal underwriter. 

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