Over the past year, we’ve been reporting on how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has failed to greenlight any of various Bitcoin ETF proposals that have come across its desk, most notably from Van Eck SolidX, which was under consideration for a while.
We’ve also seen how at least one proposal was yanked from the table during the government shutdown that occurred through January of this year, dampening a lot of folks’ holiday plans.
Now, with the government back in business, others are coming to the party.
Today, we have news from documents released earlier this week that another ETF proposal seeks to blend BTC with runner-up Ethereum.
A US SEC Form S-1 registration statement shows that a company called Crescent Crypto Index Services is looking to set up an ETF with both Bitcoin and ETH holdings.
Just to recap, for those who aren’t familiar with the ETF – an exchange traded fund is simply a digital index that tracks the value of some asset.
The key benefits of an ETF are intraday trading capability and a conventional model where individual traders buy and sell any volume of the ETF, often with the aid of a brokerage that may take a commission on each sale.
Another major benefit of an ETF is low minimum capital outlay – for example, if one Bitcoin is worth $6000 as it is now, small investors are not likely to buy that entire Bitcoin. They don’t want investments that require them to fork over thousands of dollars up front. With an ETF, some small investor, maybe somebody working with a limited 401(k) or IRA, would simply buy the ETF to the tune of several hundred dollars, and either buy-and-hold or day trade on it accordingly.
Although the SEC has not yet responded positively to any of the proposals that were brought forth last year and earlier this year, there is every indication that eventually the commission will give in and in sign off on some crypto ETF proposal that will likely include Bitcoin.
Take a look at how William Suberg says this in Cointelegraph coverage:
“Concerns over compliance mean that rejections have come frequently since the first bid to launch the product in March 2017, with delays contributing to the already slow progress,” Suberg writes. “At the same time, regulators themselves have hinted they are confident that at some point in the future, an ETF will satisfy all the necessary requirements, a view echoed by industry figures.”
An ETF will also almost certainly move crypto markets, because it will greatly widen the set of opportunities available, so keep an eye out and factor any ETF news into your overall crypto trading strategy.
