[2015-03-01] WSJ - BIT Poised to Become Publicly Traded Bitcoin Fund

[knight22]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-investment-trust-gets-finras-ok-to-become-public-bitcoin-fund-1425242094

Full article here: https://archive.today/Nk80r#selection-1315.0-1323.1

Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Investment Trust is poised to become the first publicly traded bitcoin fund, with approval and assignment of a ticker symbol by the financial industry’s main self-regulatory body paving the way for trading on an electronic platform operated by OTC Markets Group .

While the competing Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust is going through a lengthy Securities and Exchange Commission process to register a formal exchange-traded fund, the BIT has taken a backdoor route to public listing. By exploiting a rule that allows holders of a private fund to sell their shares publicly after a 12-month lockup period and completing a less arduous approval process with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, some of those long-held shares in BIT should soon be available to investors of any income or wealth bracket. The BIT is sponsored by Grayscale Investments, a unit of Mr. Silbert’s Digital Currency Group, which he established last year to hold the digital currency interests of his broker-dealer SecondMarket Inc.

[cr1776]

That explains why they had the twelve month lockup that some people were questioning and calling a huge negative.

[LiteCoinGuy]

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-investment-trust-gets-finra-green-light-to-trade/

http://pando.com/2015/03/02/barry-silberts-bit-wins-the-race-to-become-the-first-publicly-traded-bitcoin-investment-vehicle/

[LiteCoinGuy]

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/the-first-bitcoin-etf-offers-easy-way-to-profit-from-virtual-currency-gbtc-cm450589

[LiteCoinGuy]

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/another-baby-step-toward-bitcoin-acceptance-cm450338

[Alley]

So if Joe public buys 10 shares will BIT then have to buy 1 bitcoin off a exchange and store it?  How does it work exactly?

[Chef Ramsay]

So if Joe public buys 10 shares will BIT then have to buy 1 bitcoin off a exchange and store it?  How does it work exactly?

More than likely, especially as time goes by and all the shares have been purchased by varying clients. Which is why I suspect the BIT folks will be looking to get a hold of part of the next coin auction coming up. That's the best part about these trusts and ETFs coming out is that it takes away the personal security side of holding bitcoins thus taking away one of the last vestiges of apprehension preventing investors from coming on board. In this case, BIT does all the work and folks buy what they want. When this starts trending among all the investor/IRA/401k communities across the world, the demand will go through the roof all the while the daily bitcoin mining will halve and thus the price per coin will reach current fantasy levels.