The most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin (BTC), rallied and hit the USD 60,000 mark for the first time since April 2021, as Bloomberg reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to allow the first US BTC futures exchange-traded fund to begin trading.
On a volatile Friday morning (UTC time), BTC moved from USD 57,300 to above USD 60,000 in a matter of hours. It briefly spiked above this level before correcting lower. At 05:55 UTC, BTC trades at USD 59,766 and is up by almost 3% in a day and 11% in a week.
BTC price chart:
The regulator isn’t likely to block the products from starting to trade next week, the report said, citing people, who asked not to be named while discussing the decision. Four futures-backed Bitcoin ETFs could begin trading on US exchanges this month, with deadlines for applications from VanEck and Valkyrie also approaching, it added.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, urged investors to make sure they “carefully weigh the potential risks and benefits” “before investing in a fund that holds Bitcoin futures contracts.”
This month, the SEC already approved an ETF, brought to the market by ETF issuer Volt Equity, that aims to track companies that either have a majority of their assets in bitcoin, or derive a majority of their revenue from related activities, including Bitcoin mining, mining hardware manufacturing, or lending services.
As reported, a futures-backed ETF – known as “paper bitcoin”– would be very unlikely to have much impact in terms of the available supply of actual bitcoins. However, such an ETF could still be useful, especially because it simplifies a lot of things for institutional investors from a regulatory standpoint and it also makes buying bitcoin as part of an existing investment portfolio “totally straightforward.”
However, some analysts warn the crypto community that it may be overestimating how much demand there is for such an ETF. For example, Bloomberg expects only about USD 4bn of demand in the first 12 months for the exchange-traded fund. The figure represents just around 1% of bitcoin’s market capitalization and around 3% of all bitcoin futures traded.
Also, as reported, in a recent letter to investors, Dan Morehead, CEO of crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, reminded readers about the old Wall Street saying of “buy the rumor, sell the fact.”
“Will someone please remind the day before the bitcoin ETF officially launches? I might want to take some chips off the table,” the CEO said.
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Learn more:
– Experts Disagree on Prospects of Bitcoin ETF in 2021 as Deadline Nears
– Not Ideal, but ‘Better Than Nothing’ – Market Awaits ‘Paper Bitcoin’ ETF
– Bitcoin and Ethereum Sees Deeper Markets, Maturing as Assets
– SEC Approves Bitcoin-Related ETF as Market Awaits for ‘Real’ BTC ETF
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(Updated at 04:49 UTC with a comment from SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy. Updated at 05:25 UTC with the latest market data. Updated at 05:58 UTC with the latest market data and reactions. Updated at 07:38 UTC with additional reactions.)
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