A Bitcoin ETF Could Just Be around the Corner

[BitcoinArsenal]

The push for a bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund has been on for close to 4 years with no success. However, things might be looking bright for cryptocurrency traders as a closed-end fund; much similar to ETFs might be underway. While speaking on Bloomberg, Cathie Wood, chief executive officer of ARK Investment Management, said a bitcoin ETF will come into play in at least two years, possibly accompanied by a handful of “education.”

The proposed bitcoin fund will allow investors to trade in financial securities tied to bitcoins without necessarily owning bitcoins.ARK Innovation ETF, which operates the first U.S cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund, gains access to cryptocurrency through the Bitcoin Investment Trust. The BIT is an investment vehicle that allows investment in bitcoins, deriving its value from the price of bitcoins. BITs liquidate into GBTCs, after one-year holding period and sold to underlying investment funds.

[BrewMaster]

once i was happy about ETFs and thought they can help bitcoin's popularity but now i don't know. they may even cause more restrictions over normal way of investing in bitcoin. they can even lead to restrictive regulations set by SEC for example on bitcoin exchanges and force people to go through these ETFs.

[pootutus]

That would be good news. Now, bitcoin ecosystem is not very big, I think it does not take long, the big companies and countries will slowly accept bitcoin, because it is centralized, it is the world.

[illinest]

once i was happy about ETFs and thought they can help bitcoin's popularity but now i don't know. they may even cause more restrictions over normal way of investing in bitcoin. they can even lead to restrictive regulations set by SEC for example on bitcoin exchanges and force people to go through these ETFs.

I don't think exchanges generally fall within the jurisdiction of the SEC unless an exchange is engaging in trading of securities. That may be the case with altcoin exchanges trading in ICO tokens that are securities, but it shouldn't apply to Bitcoin nor cryptocurrencies in general. They also can't force anyone to use these ETFs instead of obtaining bitcoins for themselves. If the government really wanted to stop the use of unlicensed exchanges, I think they would have to pass prohibitions in Congress.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it. When I leave my current job, I want to roll my 401k into something with exposure to Bitcoin. Not possible with my current 401k through my job. An ETF would do quite nicely there, and I would enjoy day trading tax free on it.

[soham]

Some times back we heard about the same thing of bitcoin ETF but that failed miserably to take off. We all expected big for that ETF and the bitcoin price was also gone up to a decent level with the hopes riding high around the ETF. However, the ETF can be a very good investment for all type of investors and we will be able to see a lot of investments flowing in to crypt market if it is successful. Also it will help to mitigate a lot of confusions about bitcoin from the mind of the people and push the acceptability of bitcoin to another level.  

[BillyBobZorton]

once i was happy about ETFs and thought they can help bitcoin's popularity but now i don't know. they may even cause more restrictions over normal way of investing in bitcoin. they can even lead to restrictive regulations set by SEC for example on bitcoin exchanges and force people to go through these ETFs.

I don't think exchanges generally fall within the jurisdiction of the SEC unless an exchange is engaging in trading of securities. That may be the case with altcoin exchanges trading in ICO tokens that are securities, but it shouldn't apply to Bitcoin nor cryptocurrencies in general. They also can't force anyone to use these ETFs instead of obtaining bitcoins for themselves. If the government really wanted to stop the use of unlicensed exchanges, I think they would have to pass prohibitions in Congress.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it. When I leave my current job, I want to roll my 401k into something with exposure to Bitcoin. Not possible with my current 401k through my job. An ETF would do quite nicely there, and I would enjoy day trading tax free on it.

Most exchanges are hosted in foreign places where most of these laws don't apply. if I want to trade between altcoins, I don't want to give them my picture holding my ID (something incredibly stupid because this could end up being sold in the dark net to impersonate you) so I tend to search for smaller exchanges like Cryptopia and Livecoin. Even if the volumes aren't good, they don't bother me with a million verifications.

If you want to trade with fiat, I understand it, but if im trading between cryptos, it's stupid that you should give them all of that info, which is what is Bittrex is doing. It has turned into a nazi exchange where you can't do anything without verification. At least with Poloniex it seems you still can do some minor alt trades without much verification other than your name and country, which could be anything since apparently they don't even check it. I've been using an account with fake names and country that I set back in the day because I was poor and didn't even bother, I was just trying to buy 50 bucks worth of BTC. Thus far, they haven't told me anything about it so it seems they don't care.