There have been many attempts at establishing a spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), and the Securities and Exchange Commission has swatted down every one. But the BlackRock application has everyone’s attention, as the global asset management giant has only had one other ETF request fail, out of 576 attempts. If approved, the floodgates could very well open for other investment firms. And for now, the market is optimistic.
An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) Is a pooled investment security that works like a mutual fund. All ETFs help investors dabble in new markets with reduced risk. A spot ETF is purchasable immediately and at the current price, not a future price. And for many, a spot ETF based on Bitcoin is the holy grail of next-generation finance.
Alas, nobody has ever gotten the Securities and Exchange Commission to authorize a spot Bitcoin ETF. On paper, the filing ten days ago by BlackRock is just another turn at the plate. But BlackRock is no rookie. It’s the largest money-management firm in the world with $8 trillion-with-a-T in assets under management and hundreds of ETFs.
BlackRock has only struck out once out of more than 570 times. Suffice to say, hopes are high. Bitcoin surged in both market share and price, whetting the appetite of institutional investors, earning industry praise and ETF applications from other firms.
🪙 Coin of the moment
Thanks to BlackRock buzz, the crypto board was nearly all greenthis week. Bitcoin and Ethereum saw double-digit gains, as well as most of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Discover unparalleled transparency in DeFi. Earn up to 1.5% daily returns through our diverse portfolios and track all our trades in real-time. Join our active community, led by a fully doxxed and KYCd team, and benefit from a thoroughly audited contract.
Stories we recommend from outside Decrypt this week.
– IMF Suddenly Flips On Crypto As Wall Street Fuels A $200 Billion Bitcoin, Ethereum And Crypto Price Rally (Forbes)
– Is Bitcoin Evolving Beyond Its Use as a Store of Value? (Bitcoin Magazine)
– He Went After Crypto Companies. Then Someone Came After Him. (New York Times)
– ‘Home Improvement’ Star Zachery Ty Bryan Amassed a Bitcoin Fortune, Then Spiraled Amid Domestic Violence Arrest, Allegations of Fraud (The Hollywood Reporter)
– Woman Makes Herself an AI Boyfriend… Gets Married and Pregnant With Him (Marca)
– Inside OpenAI, the Architect of ChatGPT (The Circuit)
Rohit Gupta, co-founder of esports team NYXL, chats with Decrypt’s Kate Irwin at the 3XP expo to discuss challenges faced by the esports industry and opportunities and experiments in Web3.
