La Security exchange commission The US (SEC) has been particularly cautious about listing applications for cryptocurrency-related ETFs.
- It has so far only approved that of BITO.
- And this ETF doesn’t even own bitcoin directly: rather, it mirrors the market for bitcoin futures (buy and sell) contracts.
In Canada, already 3 cryptocurrency ETFs are traded on the stock exchange to directly reflect the price of bitcoin: BTCC, BTCX and EBIT.
The launch of these ETFs and others related to cryptocurrencies has made Canada a global leader in selling crypto through funds this year.
- In fact, initially, the managers of the US ETF BITO were considering buying these Canadian ETFs to give investors in BITO direct exposure to the price of bitcoin.
- But managers backed down at the last minute, presumably at the request of the SEC.
This change is a shortfall for Canadian ETFs, which could have benefited from indirect purchases from US investors.
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For canadian investors, it does not change anything in the short term.
- They have little reason to be interested in a US Bitcoin ETF when they already have a fairly large and diverse selection of Canadian ETFs.
In the long term, it would be logical to provide that:
- as in Canada, other cryptocurrency-related ETFs will go public in the United States;
- this will democratize access to the cryptocurrency market – because, while it is possible to buy it directly, it is easier for many investors to hold it in their main brokerage account through ‘an ETF; and
- By increasing the number of investors concerned, this multiplication of specialized ETFs will fuel the craze for crypto and the rise in their price.
Moreover, at the same time as BITO made its IPO yesterday, the price of bitcoin continued to rise and approached its record price.
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