Wallstreet firms are knocking on the doors of the SEC seeking to have Bitcoin (BTC) ETF’s approved by the regulatory body. ETFs are Exchange Trader Funds that are marketable securities that track an index, a commodity, bonds or a basket of assets. In this case, the most likely index or basket of assets will include the big 5 cryptocurrencies of BTC, Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum Classic (ETC).
The reason for including the 5 assets is due to the fact that these are the cryptocurrencies the SEC has no qualms with. As a matter of fact, Coinbase currently only offers these 5 digital assets for trading for the exchange has been rumored to align itself to the SEC so as to also look attractive to institutional investors through their new service of Coinbase Custody.
These institutional investors are the same firms filing for requests to have BTC based ETFs. One of the first firms to apply to the SEC was VanEck and SolidX Partners Inc. The latter company’s CEO, Daniel H. Gallancy, was quoted as saying:
Regulators are concerned right now about having an ETF that is available to retail investors, but right now a good place to start is with a product geared purely toward institutional investors.
This statement echoes the general feel in the crypto markets that once ETFs are approved by the SEC, all hell will break loose in the form of the big money in the trillions, finding its way in the crypto markets.
However, the SEC has since rejected the applications by VanEck and SolidX Partners Inc. but this has not deterred another Wallstreet firm to try its luck. CBOE Global Markets, who were also one of the first to offer BTC futures, have also filed a license with the SEC to offer the additional product of Bitcoin ETFs. CBOE hopes to convince the SEC that BTC and other crypto assets in the ETFs, should be considered as securities while inside the ETF and not individually.
In a nutshell, the application of ETFs by Wallstreet firms is a clear indicator that the big money is coming into the crypto markets through the additional products of ETFs. The impact of these products is expected to be astronomical in the sense that if the SEC approves the ETFs, they would have indirectly given the green-light for mainstream investing in all other cryptocurrencies. Hence the trillions in funds will eventually end up in the crypto markets.
