Momentum continues to build for the introduction of a Bitcoin Exchange-traded Fund (ETF). Wall Street veteran Ric Edelman, the chairman of Edelman Financial Services, is confident that a Bitcoin ETF may soone become a reality. During a CNBC appearance on its “ETF Edge” segment, Edelman was asked if the SEC would ever give its approval for such a fund. His rather straightforward answer was not “if”, but “when”.
Over the past year, the SEC has turned down nearly a dozen applications for the much-anticipated BTC ETF. News on the street is that the CBOE and its partnering firms of VanEck and financial services company SolidX have re-submitted their BTC ETF application to the SEC, but will the SEC have similar concerns as before? The SEC has claimed that it cannot give its approval due to its fear of price manipulation, the lack of necessary security protocols and activity monitoring software, and especially custodial services to protect investor deposits.
Edelman believes that a number of efforts are in the works that will address these issues and that in quick order the SEC will stop feeling so “uncomfortable”. He mentioned the work of Fidelity, a Wall Street powerhouse, in the area of custodial services, but also praised Kingdom Trust, along with a “number of other very serious players” in the custody field. He then acknowledged that VanEck and its partners should have no problems dispelling the SEC’s previous concerns.
His final comment on this topic noted that the degree of capital and human manpower behind the crypto ETF effort is so significant that the launch of a Bitcoin ETF is a virtual certainty:
Eventually we will see a bitcoin ETF and it’s at that stage that I will be much more comfortable recommending that ordinary investors participate.
There was also news of a recent filing with the SEC that there may also be another contender, if that can be said for a “semi” Bitcoin ETF. Eric Ervin’s Reality Shares, a crypto-centric investment services provider, has sought approval for a new ETF that would include an allocation of 15% of its resources to Bitcoin futures on the CBOE and CME. The remaining portfolio would be devoted to sovereign debt and money market instruments. The mere inclusion of Bitcoin futures should elicit some kind of response from the SEC and provide more definitive information on what might be acceptable.
Do other Wall Street advisors like Edelman look favorably upon a Bitcoin ETF and what it could mean for their clients? Bitwise Asset Management, a San Francisco-headquartered crypto investment services provider, canvassed 150 U.S.-based advisors and 35% of them would recommend that their clients invest in cryptocurrencies, if an ETF were present. Tom Lydon, the head editor at ETFTrends.com, when interviewed by CNBC, also revealed apparent interest in his part of the world. A full 74% of ETF advisors in his pool had held back on making any crypto allocations to date, but the launch of a Bitcoin ETF would make their lives easier to do so, if only from a procurement perspective.