Paul Grewal, legal director of the brokerage Coinbase, said in an interview with CNBC on Friday (20) that he is very confident that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon approve the ETF.
“I am quite hopeful that these ETF applications will be approved, even if it is only because they should be approved according to the law,” said Grewal.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan analysts said in a report released on Wednesday (18) that it is “highly likely” that a Bitcoin spot ETF would be approved before January 10. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts also said that there is a 90% chance of a Bitcoin ETF being approved in January.
An ETF is an investment vehicle that tracks the value of an underlying asset, such as gold, foreign currencies, or in this case, cryptocurrencies.
Currently, a Bitcoin spot ETF does not yet exist in the United States, but it would provide investors with exposure to the cryptocurrency in a safe and easy way.
The SEC has approved several Bitcoin futures ETFs, such as the Proshares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. There was great interest in these products when they were first launched during a bull market, but since then, interest in cryptocurrency futures ETFs has waned.
An example of this is the ProShares fund itself, the first to obtain approval, which is traded on the NYSE under the ticker BITO. It accumulated over $1 billion in investments in the first two days, but did not grow beyond the initial frenzy. It currently has $902 million in assets under management.
Analysts are optimistic
Investors are eager for a Bitcoin spot ETF, but the SEC has denied requests for such a product, mainly citing the potential for market manipulation as one of the main reasons.
Now, however, analysts are more optimistic than ever: BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has applied for its own Bitcoin ETF, and the fund manager Grayscale has won a victory against the SEC, where a federal judge supported the company in its application to convert its main Bitcoin fund into an ETF.
Currently, the SEC has a long list of requests from major Wall Street players for review, including VanEck, WisdomTree, and ARK Invest.
*Translated with permission from Decrypt.
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