U.S. asset manager XFUNDS (XFUNDS) has introduced an exchange-traded fund that invests in bitcoin after the U.S. stock market closes, and in cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries during regular trading hours.

TheBlockCrypto reported on April 8 that the firm launched the Nicholas Bitcoin & Treasuries Afterdark ETF, under the ticker NGHT.

The product is structured to take indirect bitcoin exposure after traditional U.S. financial markets close, then move back into cash and U.S. Treasuries when the next trading day opens. It is a strategy ETF that focuses on bitcoin trading 24 hours a day and price moves outside U.S. stock market hours.

David Nicholas (데이비드 니콜라스), CEO of XFUNDS, explained that because bitcoin trades 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the influence of global moves outside U.S. trading hours is growing. He said this was the background to the new fund strategy.

The fund targets opportunities for excess returns in bitcoin during hours outside the U.S. regular session. XFUNDS judged that historically a significant portion of bitcoin returns occurred late at night, while during the day the tendency to move in tandem with U.S. stocks stood out. It therefore adopted a structure that reduces bitcoin exposure during regular hours to manage volatility.

The launch comes as competition among U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs is shifting again. On the same day, Morgan Stanley also introduced a spot bitcoin ETF product called MSBT. The product's fee is set at 0.14 percent, lower than major offerings from BlackRock and Grayscale.

In the market, Morgan Stanley's distribution power is cited as a variable. Morgan Stanley manages customer assets worth trillions of dollars through about 16,000 financial advisers. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas projected that MSBT could reach $5 billion in assets under management in its first year and $30 million in trading volume on its first day of listing.

Fund flows have also been changing recently. U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs saw large outflows for months, but net inflows have recently been expanding again. Net inflows on April 7 totaled about $471 million, the largest in the past six weeks. The inflows were led by BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT, and Fidelity's FBTC.

As a result, the spot bitcoin ETF market appears to be entering a phase of differentiation beyond simple competition to hold spot assets, extending to trading hours and asset allocation methods. The next points to watch are whether NGHT can draw money with a strategy that separately targets nighttime bitcoin returns, and what kind of competitive landscape it will create against new products from large financial firms that emphasize low fees.