Europe Will Get Risky 3x Leveraged Bitcoin, Ethereum ETFs as Crypto Markets Melt Down

European investors will soon be able to take bigger, leveraged bets on Ethereum and Bitcoin via new exchange traded products from Leverage Shares, which will offer 3x leveraged short and long options for both assets on the SIX Swiss stock exchange. 

The offerings will allow investors to add risk amid a volatile time in markets, characterized by Bitcoin and Ethereum’s weekly plunges—now down 11.8% and 12.5%, respectively. 

“Leverage Shares is launching the world’s first ever 3x and -3x Bitcoin and [Ethereum] ETFs in Europe next week,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted Friday on X. “Timing is either really good or really bad, depending on your point of view.”

Balchunas expects the products to start trading next week, but a representative for Leverage Shares did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment. 

The latest leveraged products join a variety of global offerings that provide amplified, and therefore riskier investment opportunities to investors. Last month, ETF manager Volatility Shares applied to offer up to 5x leveraged ETF products on Bitcoin, Solana, and XRP to United States investors. 

Unlike traditional crypto ETFs, which track the underlying price of an asset like Bitcoin or Ethereum, leveraged ETFs aim to provide boosted returns based on the activity of the tracked asset. 

And they’re coming for more than the major crypto assets. 

On Thursday, 21Shares unveiled a 2x leveraged Dogecoin (DOGE) ETF—TXDD—which essentially allows investors to take a long position on the leading meme coin and potentially reap two times the token’s daily performance, less fees and expenses. 

The product launches come in the wake of crypto’s record-breaking $19 billion liquidation cascade that first propelled the market’s recent downturn on October 10. 

Like the rise of leveraged exchange traded products, perps trading and leverage products on-chain have gotten more popular too, potentially creating a risk to the long-term health of the market, some industry experts told Decrypt last month.

Industry veterans like Fundstrat CIO and BitMine Immersion Technologies Chairman Tom Lee continue to suggest that the market’s recent chaos is still part of a broader recalibration from the events of October 10. Nevertheless, Lee is still calling for an Ethereum supercycle. 

Bitcoin is down nearly 13% in the last week, recently trading at $84,065. Ethereum has fallen harder in the same time frame, dropping 14% over the past seven days and changing hands at $2,731.

Bitcoin dove to nearly $81,000 on Friday, marking a fresh seven-month low for the leading cryptocurrency and prompting a market plunge that led to over $2.2 billion worth of crypto liquidations.