“Investors poured about $240 million into two blockchain-focused ETFs since their launch last week, according to the latest available data from FactSet. Blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” reports CNBC. “The surge of interest came even as bitcoin, the largest digital currency by market capitalization, stagnated in price in the last week. Bitcoin has fallen nearly 7 percent in the last week to about $10,800 Friday on Coinbase, the leading U.S. exchange for major cryptocurrencies.”
The First Trust Indxx Innovative Transaction & Process ETF (NASDAQ: LEGR) debuted on Thursday.
The new ETF tracks the Indxx Blockchain Index. That benchmark follows “companies across the globe that are either actively using, investing in, developing, or have products that are poised to benefit from a new technology known as blockchain. The index seeks to include only companies that have devoted material resources to the use of blockchain technologies,” according to a statement.
“Digital currency bitcoin leaped 2,000 percent in the 12 months leading up to mid-December, amid a surge of interest in cryptocurrencies that sent their total market value above $800 billion earlier this month, according to CoinMarketCap,” according to CNBC.
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