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Financial services firm T-Rex Group has filed for a leveraged MicroStrategy (MSTR) exchange-traded fund in the United States — with one analyst describing it as a “ghost pepper” of ETFs due to its potential volatility.&nbsp;
Balchunas said if the fund were to be approved, it would expose investors to around 20 times the typical volatility of the S&amp;P 500. 
“These are a near-lock to be most volatile ETFs ever seen in the U.S. [...] The ghost pepper of ETF hot sauce,” senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote in a June 27 post on X. 
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1806436903119671763" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Eric Balchunas</a>
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Balchunas pointed to the current volatility of a three-times-leveraged Microstrategy ETF on the European market, saying that it made the QQQ — an index of the top 100 publicly traded companies in the United States — look like a “money market fund.”
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-06/62ef289b-426d-4bd2-966d-2384fa675d3a.png">
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1806437837501501930" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Eric Balchunas</a>
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MicroStrategy was founded as a software company in 1989 by now-executive chairman Michael Saylor. Since then, it has become one of the largest publicly traded holders of Bitcoin, currently holding a staggering 214,400 Bitcoin (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price">BTC</a>) — worth $13.2 billion — on its books. 
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/short-microstrategy-investment-bitcion-michael-saylor">Why are traders shorting Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy?</a>
An outspoken Bitcoin bull, Saylor has given reasoning for holding such vast quantities of Bitcoin through the company — the asset is a hedge against inflation and a superior alternative to holding cash. 
MicroStrategy shares are up 120% from the start of this year and 336% from this time last year, aided by a significant boon in the price of Bitcoin in the same time frame.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-06/46ff23b2-4b1b-463c-8683-1547d3e83048.png">
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 MicroStrategy shares have posted gains of 120% so far this year. Source: TradingView
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Bitcoin is currently changing hands for $61,589, up 104% in the last year, per TradingView <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BTCUSD/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">data</a>. 
Saylor first adopted a primarily Bitcoin-focused acquisition strategy in 2020, using MicroStrategy equity to start buying up large chunks of Bitcoin. 
In recent months, several other companies have begun taking notes from MicroStrategy’s playbook, adopting a Bitcoin-focused treasury-hedging strategy.
On April 9, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/japanese-investment-firm-boost-stock-adopt-bitcoi">announced the purchase</a> of $6.5 million worth of Bitcoin as a core treasury asset, a move that saw its stock price soar more than 89% on the day. 
On May 28, healthcare firm Semler Scientific purchased 581 BTC for a price of $40 million, also as part of its core treasury strategy. 
Most recently on June 10, Canadian exchange-traded product (ETP) issuer and venture capital firm DeFi Technologies <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/defi-technologies-adopts-bitcoin-treasury-strategy">announced the acquisition</a> of 110 Bitcoin as its company’s core reserve asset. 
Magazine — <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/bali-indonesia-crypto-digital-nomad-remote-work-cointelegraph-magazine/">Become a Bali crypto digital nomad like me: Here’s how</a>

T-Rex files for ‘ghost pepper’ 2X leveraged MicroStrategy ETF

Cointelegraph

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