SEC Said To Allow Bitcoin Futures ETFs As Deadline Looms

The Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to allow the first U.S. Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund to begin trading in a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency industry, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg reports: The regulator isn't likely to block the products from starting to trade next week, said the people, who asked not to be named while discussing the decision. Unlike Bitcoin ETF applications that the regulator has previously rejected, the proposals by ProShares and Invesco Ltd. are based on futures contracts and were filed under mutual fund rules that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said provide "significant investor protections." Barring a last-minute reversal, the fund launch will be the culmination of a nearly decade-long campaign by the $6.7 trillion ETF industry. Advocates have sought approval as a confirmation of mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies since Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins best known for their part in the history of Facebook Inc., filed the first application for a Bitcoin ETF in 2013.

Approval has for years been out of the grasp of issuers who, amid myriad false signs of progress and outright rejections, have tried to get a variety of different structures cleared for trading. Over the years, there have been plans for funds that proposed to hold Bitcoin via a digital vault or that could use leverage to juice returns. Others sought to mitigate Bitcoin's famous volatility, a key point of contention for the SEC. [...] Four futures-backed Bitcoin ETFs could begin trading on U.S. exchanges this month, with deadlines for applications from VanEck and Valkyrie also approaching. Meanwhile, dozens of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products have launched in Canada and across Europe.

Unsurprising considering other tradable garbage

[JoeyRox]

If they allow other imaginary securities like synthetic CDOs to trade then it would seem a tad-bit hypocritical to draw the line at imaginary currencies like Bitcoin. As always, only thing driving the SEC's decision is the money to be made by the industry market makers who have the SEC captured.

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

Where is me gold?
At the end of the rainbow...

Re:

[BeepBoopBeep]

This is actually welcomed, as the Pro Shares ETF is trying to peg the price to the price to BTC, not owning the asset itself. This is no different than an ETF pegging to gold. For most traders, this is big news for one thing: Options. I could care less for owning BTC but would love to get in on the volatility of its pricing through options.

The bank always wins

[TheNameOfNick]

Faites vos jeux.

A big test

[DarkOx]

This will be a big test for BitCoin. Creation of ETFs will essentially lower the barrier of entry from having to deal with some sketchy exchange or possess some technical knowledge to everyone with mobile app from their broker gets to play.

We will find out if more of the people on the side lines - thought it was stupid, and did not bother with it, but now that its easy to gamble on shorting it will do so vs people who wanted to get in because they believe it will continue to appreciate but were uncomfortable with the how.

I don't think this will reduce volatility or speculation in the short term if it was those international markets would have done it. However I think ETFs on US exchanges with US style options contracts on them will put in a long term trend of either continued appreciation against the dollar or long term decline. Its sink or swim time for BitCoin.

Re:

[aaarrrgggh]

If I understand this correctly, it would end up working like the leveraged oil ETFs back in their heyday — destined to return less than the underlying asset due to the cost of laddering futures contracts. They work for short term but not long term.

As for what it does for Bitcoin, still not taking that gamble.

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[matmos]

It seems like it would be a great way to launder money as well. Create some fake "original" of some sort and thanks for that $10K. Now I'll give it back to you and keep $2k for my efforts...

Re:

[omnichad]

If most of the transactions of BTC are from speculators and it has no other values, then the shift to trading ETFs will just straight cause the value of BTC to plummet because nobody will want to trade the actual currency anymore. For that matter, the exchanges make most of their money from speculative trading, so unless actual commerce starts taking place with Bitcoin, the exchanges will stop making money too.

Re:

[RoccamOccam]

will put in a long term trend of either continued appreciation against the dollar or long term decline.

Way to go out on a limb! :-)

If BitCoin somehow becomes absolutely stable against the dollar, you are going to look silly

Re:

[DarkOx]

Heh,

I admit its not the boldest prediction in the world. However what I am saying is that year or year a trend is about to be put in place and it won't look like gold or silver when you zoom out on the chart. There were will be only good years or only bad years going forward.

Bitcoin is a fucking nightmare in terms of climate

[h33t l4x0r]

Move to a proof of stake chain, or at the vey least, a chain that is moving towards that (ETH).

Re:

[invictusvoyd]

There was a time when we'd kill innocent whales to light up street lamps .

Re:

[phalse phace]

Now we hunt whales under the false guise of scientific research [slashdot.org]

Re: Bitcoin is a fucking nightmare in terms of cli

[rock217]

Some of us prefer permissionless, decentralized systems.

Re:

[onefriedrice]

Bitcoin miners are incentivized to search out the least expensive energy sources they can find, which are usually clean and/or renewable. They can do this because mines can be set up pretty much anywhere, so the location of the energy is typically not a problem. For example, a lot of mining is on hydroelectric which is both clean and renewable. They just start mining right next to dams. Commonly certain types of renewals like hydroelectric frequently produce too much energy for the grid to accept, and miner

too big to fail

[laktech]

this is the first step to making crypto too big to fail. once everyones 401ks are riddled with this tulip the US govt. will be forced to bail us out. Then we'll create the crypo reform laws.

Same Dribble

[SinisterEVIL]

Everyone that hates Crypto just keeps repeating the same statements I've been hearing for the last 11 years without doing any research. How many years in a row will someone say the same thing only to be proven wrong year after year. I'm asking seriously, not as a slight or joke. For instance, in another 20 years if bitcoin is still growing slowly, will everyone continue to repeat why they think it's trash in the same manner?

So this ETF is based on futures

[ayesnymous]

Futures always have to rollover every month, which means the ETF won't track bitcoin's price exactly, and will have some rollover loss every month.

Health

[MarkUltraBlack]

I'm afraid that I will be the one on the sidelines who thought that cryptocurrency was stupid and there was no need to worry about it. It turned out that, apparently, it was necessary to worry. Right now I'm trying to catch up, reading Bitcoin Revolution reviews [coininsider.com] to find the right trading platform, but I still regret not getting started sooner.

Re

[MarkUltraBlack]

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