Two funds run by Horizons ETFs Canada were on “high alert” after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange halted bitcoin futures trading amid crashing crypto prices on Wednesday, the firm's CEO said.
- The exchange-traded funds had to send alerts that they would be unable to fulfill buy and sell orders if the futures price remained at its low level, the Financial Times reported Friday.
- Bitcoin tumbled as low as $30,200 at one point on Wednesday, triggering curbs designed to relieve panicked trading.
- That caused alarm for the two funds, which launched in April, allowing investors to take long and short positions on bitcoin.
- “We were on high alert at 9 a.m.,” said CEO Steve Hawkins. “We had to put in place all the business continuity plans for these ETFs.”
- The situation eased as bitcoin’s price recovered, but Hawkins believes it “opened the eyes of the retail investing public to understanding how volatile this asset class is.”