A powerful voice in finance is getting involved in the effort to build the first Bitcoin exchange traded fund of its kind.
Kevin Reynolds and Zach Seward at Coindesk report a collaboration by Ark Invest and a company called 21Shares to petition the SEC for a new Bitcoin ETF offering.
For years, we’ve been reporting on the SEC taking it’s time to consider various Bitcoin ETF proposals from parties like VanEck, and ultimately denying them all.
Meanwhile, European authorities have greenlighted Bitcoin ETFs, and the interest in secondary cryptocurrency plays has only grown, leading more people to ask what’s behind the slow-walking.
Currently, U.S. investors have the option of using assets such as Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
But a Bitcoin ETF would really provide an effective and convenient cryptocurrency on-ramp in the American market.
Kathie Wood, the founder of Ark Invest, has quite a reputation for prescient investing and market predictions. Now her company is buying up stake in assets like GBTC, anticipating more interest in Bitcoin in the investor community, and planning for a potential BTC ETF called ARKB.
An S-1 filing by the company goes into the essential value proposition for Bitcoin:
“The market value of bitcoin is not related to any specific company, government or asset. The valuation of bitcoin depends on future expectations for the value of the Bitcoin network, the number of bitcoin transactions, and the overall usage of bitcoin as an asset. This means that a significant amount of the value of bitcoin is speculative, which could lead to increased volatility. Investors could experience significant gains, losses and/or volatility in the Trust’s holdings, depending on the valuation of bitcoin.”
Will Ark and company be successful where others have failed, or will “ARKB” join the rest of the would-be Bitcoin ETFs in the SEC’s Davey Jones Locker? Stay tuned.
