Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds are closer than ever to changing into a actuality, however approval remains to be a methods away, one market analyst says.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is at the moment reviewing VanEck’s second proposal for a bitcoin ETF. Officials now have roughly two weeks to resolve whether or not to approve, reject or lengthen their overview window.
Even with Coinbase’s direct listing reinvigorating curiosity in the cryptocurrency market, potential bitcoin ETF issuers will nonetheless face obstacles, says Bitwise Asset Management chief funding officer Matt Hougan.
“The crypto business … has gone by means of this huge institutional maturation. Every facet of it has improved considerably over the previous 5 years, over the previous three years and over the previous 12 months. Coinbase going public is simply one other a part of that narrative,” he instructed CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
“So, completely, we’re getting closer to a bitcoin ETF. I proceed to suppose it is a matter of when and not if, however we’re not all the way there but,” he mentioned. “The SEC has been asking good questions and corporations like Bitwise and others have been working to deal with these. But I do suppose we’re getting closer.”
The nomination of Gary Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs government who taught a class on cryptocurrencies and blockchain at MIT, to lead the SEC might push issues ahead, Hougan mentioned.
“I believe it helps in that it is a new administration, a new, contemporary set of priorities and that he is an skilled on this house, however I do not suppose there’s any magic sauce,” the CIO mentioned.
“The market has to be ok, has to be institutional sufficient, has to be mature sufficient to help an ETF earlier than the SEC greenlights one. But the excellent news is I do suppose we’re closer to that time right this moment than we have been in the previous, and I actually suppose we’re getting there.”
