As the price of bitcoin hovers above $93,000, after a rally of nearly 40% over the past 30 days, at least one aggressive new ETF is amplifying the crypto run in historic fashion.
The T-Rex 2X Long MSTR Daily Target ETF (MSTU) is up 900% since it started trading Sept. 18. And as of midday Wednesday, the assets have swelled above $3 billion, making it the biggest hit so far for the joint venture between Tuttle Capital and Rex Shares.
Scott Acheychek, chief operating officer of Rex Shares, credits the sudden success of MSTU to good timing and momentum.
“When you launch an ETF, you work toward a launch date and through some combination of skill and luck, we happened to launch on the same day the Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points,” he said, citing the boost that lower rates ultimately provided to the new ETF.
Aside from ideal timing, there isn’t much of a secret behind MSTU’s success beyond the fact that it is a leveraged play on MicroStrategy Inc., the largest publicly traded owner of bitcoin.
As a pure investment, MicroStrategy stock is up nearly 680% from the start of the year, and MSTU applies two times leverage to that stock.
“The growth of MSTU mirrors what we’ve seen with other leveraged ETFs tied to hot stocks like Tesla and Nvidia,” said etf.com senior ETF analyst Sumit Roy.
“When these stocks catch fire, the assets can explode very quickly,” he added, citing the growth of the GraniteShares 2X Long NVDA Daily ETF (NVDL), which has grown to nearly $6.3 billion by leveraging the Magnificent Seven poster child, Nvidia Corp.
NVDL has gained 400% this year, slightly more than double Nvidia’s 195% gain.
Nate Geraci, owner of The ETF Store, said MSTU is the perfect example of “risk-on in the market right now.”
“MicroStrategy itself could be viewed as a leveraged play on the price of bitcoin, and MSTU takes that inherent leverage to another level and investors simply can’t get enough,” he noted. “While the ETF’s returns have been astronomical, leverage can obviously work both ways.”
Asked about the other side of the double-edged sword of leveraged ETFs, Acheychek said he isn’t worried about that at the moment.
“I look at the upward pressure on bitcoin and I can’t think of anything similar to it,” he said. “We’ve got a new administration supportive of crypto talking about a strategic crypto reserve, which other countries are also talking about. We’re getting regulatory clarity around crypto, we’ve got the inflows into crypto ETFs, and most of that money so far as been from retail investors. It’s tough for me to see all that upward pressure evaporating.”
