A newly proposed exchange-traded fund would offer exposure to bitcoin, much like other popular ETFs tracking the world’s oldest cryptocurrency. But, there’s a twist: The fund would trade bitcoin-linked assets while Wall Street sleeps. 

The Nicholas Bitcoin and Treasuries AfterDark ETF aims to purchase bitcoin-linked financial instruments after the U.S. financial markets close, and exit those positions shortly after the U.S. market re-opens each day, according to a December 9 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The fund would not hold bitcoin directly. Instead, the AfterDark ETF would use at least 80% of the value of its assets to trade bitcoin futures contracts, bitcoin exchange-traded products and ETFs, and options on those ETFs and ETPs. 

The offering would capitalize on bitcoin’s outsized gains in off-hours trading.

Hypothetically, an investor who had been buying shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) when U.S. markets formally close, and selling them at the next day’s open, would have scored a 222% gain since January 2024, data from wealth manager Bespoke Investment Group shows. But an investor that had bought IBIT shares at the open and sold them at the close would have lost 40.5% in the same time.

Bitcoin was last trading at $92,320, down nearly 1% on the day. The leading cryptocurrency is down about 12% over the past month and little changed since the beginning of the year. 

The proposed ETF underscores jockeying among sponsors to launch ETFs tracking all kinds of cryptocurrencies, from altcoins like Aptos and Sui to memecoins such as Bonk and Dogecoin. The contest has only accelerated under President Donald Trump, who has pushed the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to soften their stances on token issuers and digital asset exchanges. 

Since being approved under the prior administration in January 2024, more than 30 bitcoin ETFs have begun trading in the U.S., according to data from ETF.com.

Oracle is scheduled to report fiscal second-quarter results after market close on Wednesday.

Here’s what analysts are expecting, according to LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.64 adjusted
• Revenue: $16.21 billion

Wall Street expects revenue to increase 15% in the quarter that ended Nov. 30, from $14.1 billion a year earlier. Analysts polled by StreetAccount are looking for $7.92 billion in cloud revenue and $6.06 billion from software.

The report lands at a critical moment for Oracle, which has tried to position itself at the center of the artificial intelligence boom by committing to massive build-outs. While the move has been a boon for Oracle’s revenue and its backlog, investors have grown concerned about the amount of debt the company is raising and the risks it faces should the AI market slow.

The stock plummeted 23% in November, its worst monthly performance since 2001 and, as of Tuesday’s close, is 33% below its record reached in September. Still, the shares are up 33% for the year, outperforming the Nasdaq, which has gained 22% over that stretch.

Over the past decade, Oracle has diversified its business beyond databases and enterprise software and into cloud infrastructure, where it competes with Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Those companies are all vying for big AI contracts and are investing heavily in data centers and hardware necessary to meet expected demand.

OpenAI, which sparked the generative AI rush with the launch of ChatGPT three years ago, has committed to spending more than $300 billion on Oracle’s infrastructure services over five years.

“Oracle’s job is not to imagine gigawatt-scale data centers. Oracle’s job is to build them,” Larry Ellison, the company’s co-founder and chairman, told investors in September.

Oracle raised $18 billion during the period, one of the biggest issuances on record for a tech company. Skeptical investors have been buying five-year credit default swaps, driving them to multiyear highs. Credit default swaps are like insurance for investors, with buyers paying for protection in case the borrower can’t repay its debt.

“Customer concentration is a major issue here, but I think the bigger thing is, How are they going to pay for this?” said RBC analyst Rishi Jaluria, who has the equivalent of a hold rating on Oracle’s stock.

During the quarter, Oracle named executives Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as the company’s new CEOs, succeeding Safra Catz. Oracle also introduced AI agents for automating various facets of finance, human resources and sales.

Executives will discuss the results and issue guidance on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

WATCH: Oracle’s debt concerns loom large ahead of quarterly earnings

Nvidia on Wednesday refuted a report that the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has been using smuggled Blackwell chips to develop its upcoming model.

The U.S. has banned the export of Nvidia’s Blackwell chips, which are considered the company’s most advanced offerings, to China in an effort to stay ahead in the AI race.

DeepSeek is reportedly using chips that were snuck into the country without authorization, according to The Information.

“We haven’t seen any substantiation or received tips of ‘phantom datacenters’ constructed to deceive us and our OEM partners, then deconstructed, smuggled, and reconstructed somewhere else,” a Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement. “While such smuggling seems farfetched, we pursue any tip we receive.”

Nvidia has been one of the biggest winners of the AI boom so far because it develops the graphics processing units (GPUs) that are key for training models and running large workloads.

Since the hardware is so crucial for advancing AI technology, Nvidia’s relationship with China has become a political flashpoint among U.S. lawmakers.

President Donald Trump on Monday said Nvidia can ship its H200 chips to “approved customers” in China and elsewhere on the condition that the U.S. will get 25% of those sales.

The announcement was met with pushback from some Republicans.

DeepSeek spooked the U.S. tech sector in January when it released a reasoning model, called R1, that rocketed to the top of app stores and industry leaderboards. R1 was also created at a fraction of the cost of other models in the U.S., according to some analyst estimates.

In August, DeepSeek hinted that China will soon have its own “next generation” chips to support its AI models.

WATCH: Nvidia selling H200 AI chips to China is net positive, says Patrick Moorhead

– CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos contributed to this report.