(Bloomberg). — The debut of the ProShares Strategy ETF in the U.S. on Tuesday marked a turning point for crypto. It was a result of years-long delays. 

The fund — trading under the ticker (NYSE:) — rose about 3% to $41.25 as of 9:33 a.m. in New York. Both the cryptocurrency community as well as Wall Street investors have been waiting for this fund since a long time. Many Wall Street investors argue that an exchange-traded Bitcoin-focused fund is overdue. The ProShares fund is based on futures contracts and was filed under mutual fund rules that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said provide “significant investor protections.” 

Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin has been rising in anticipation — the world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading around $62,000 Tuesday morning in New York, slightly below its April record highs. 

“It’s an incredibly bullish week — there’s been really positive sentiment around the ETF in particular,” Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer of exchange FTX, said by phone.

It’s long been assumed that whoever receives approval first could stand to reap the greatest benefits — including industry recognition as well as potentially attracting huge amounts of cash. Some analysts are already bullish on BITO’s prospects — the futures-based Bitcoin ETF could attract more than $50 billion in inflows in its first year given the hype around it, according to noted Bitcoin bull Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors.

Market-watchers have a few measuring sticks with which to gauge BITO’s initial reception. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the SPDR Gold Shares Fund reached $1 billion assets in three days. This was the fastest ever climb, and it is now the most popular ETF. More recently, the VanEck Social Sentiment fund, ticker (NYSE:), saw more than $400 million worth of shares traded on its debut earlier this year, one of the highest amounts ever for an ETF on its first day.  

Bloomberg News reported last week that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wasn’t going to stand in the way of the launch of a futures-backed Bitcoin fund.  

Gensler is seen as more open to crypto than Jay Clayton. Observers cite Gensler’s previous interest in the crypto world — he once taught a class at MIT’s Sloan School of Management called “Blockchain and Money.” And the chairman had over the summer signaled that regulators may be more open to a Bitcoin ETF if it were based around futures rather than the cryptocurrency itself. 

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