The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price is down 1% over the past 24 hours. BTC is currently trading for US$20,297.
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), the world’s number two crypto, has slipped 3% to US$1,542.
With equities under pressure following the latest interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve, both tokens are holding up fairly well today.
But the same can’t be said for their performance over the last year.
On 10 November last year, the Bitcoin price reached all-time highs of US$68,790. It’s down a painful 71% since that record.
The Ethereum price notched its own record highs six days later. On 16 November Ether was trading for US$4,892. It’s fallen 69% from that virtual high water mark.
Facing these kinds of headwinds, two of Australia’s pioneering crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are pulling the plug.
Ethereum and Bitcoin price falls hampered these ETFs
Cosmos Asset Management launched the Cosmos Purpose Bitcoin Access ETF (CBTC) and Cosmos Purpose Ethereum Access ETF (CPET) earlier this year.
The Bitcoin ETF made its debut on the Cboe Australia exchange (formerly Chi-X) on 12 May, as The Motley Fool covered here. At that time, the Bitcoin price had already taken a big tumble but was still trading for around US$30,000.
While crypto investors had hoped that may be the bottom for the Ethereum and Bitcoin price rout, we know now that’s not how it panned out.
With the funds under pressure, yesterday Cosmos informed investors that it “will be applying to revoke the funds’ quotation on Cboe”.
Trading in both the Cosmos Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum ETF was halted on Monday. Cosmos stated, “Trading on the funds will continue to be halted pending the outcome of the application to Cboe.”
Commenting on the decision, Dan Annan, CEO of Cosmos, said (courtesy of The Australian Financial Review):
While we strongly believe in the asset class, we are all disappointed with this result. The ETFs are ring-fenced by independent external service providers, which is a key transparent risk mitigation structure across all asset classes… We will continue to follow the process in the best interests of all unitholders.
Both crypto ETFs look to be a casualty of fast-rising global interest rates.
The Bitcoin price reached its records when rates across the developed world were at historic lows, with central bankers predicting several more years of low rates.
