CNBC.com’s Pippa Stevens brings you the day’s top business news headlines. On today’s show, CNBC.com’s Tanaya Macheel reports on the first U.S. bitcoin ETF, which popped on its first day of trading. Plus, Netflix posts better-than-expected subscriber growth in the third quarter.
Shares of the first U.S. bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund rose in their trading debut Tuesday.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, ticker “BITO,” jumped 4.8% to close at $41.94. The fund tracks CME bitcoin futures, or contracts speculating on the future price of bitcoin, rather than the crypto itself.
That means investors in the ETF should expect the price and performance of the shares to differ somewhat from the price of bitcoin itself. This isn’t ideal for existing investors; many of them take a long view on cryptocurrencies and had hoped for an ETF that would track physical bitcoin that investors could buy and hold.
The price of bitcoin jumped more than 4% Tuesday to $64,206.51, according to Coin Metrics, about 1% from its all-time high from April 14 of $64,899. Bitcoin futures gained about 4% as well.
The launch highlights the remarkable growth of the ETF industry, Will Hershey, CEO of Roundhill Investments, told CNBC.
Netflix shares were up slightly after-the-bell Tuesday after the company posted third quarter results, showing investors the streamer can continue to attract new subscribers.
The quarter’s subscriber growth of 4.4 million was a solid beat over the expected 3.84 million. Analysts had expected users to flock to the streamer as it began to roll out a slew of content that was delayed to the back half of the year due to the pandemic.
The company said it expects to add 8.5 million subscribers in the fourth quarter. Netflix added it plans to have a more normal release schedule over the course of 2022, barring any Covid-related delays.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said Tuesday that Wall Street’s top regulator is working to determine if payment for order flow needs to be reformed or barred to ensure a competitive marketplace for buying and selling trading volume.
Gensler acknowledge that modern agreements between brokers and market makers have made trading far cheaper and efficient than in prior decades, but noted that some troubling conflicts of interest remain.
“Our markets have moved to zero commission, but it doesn’t mean it’s free. There’s still payment underneath these applications. And it doesn’t mean it’s always best execution,” the SEC chief said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
Online brokerages that tout “free” or zero-commission trading typically make money by selling their customers’ orders to high-frequency market makers who execute the buying and selling. That process is controversial and known on Wall Street as payment for order flow.