The Race to a Bitcoin ETF
We might have the first US Bitcoin ETF being approved as early as next week.
IN THIS PUBLICATION:
- Bitcoin ETFs are available in many countries, but none named the United States.
- In recent weeks, hope for approval by the SEC has gained momentum, with potential approvals as early as next week.
- The majority of proposed ETFs will hold BTC futures, which is different than directly holding BTC and has several implications of note for investors.
Recent Developments
- Following Binance and FTX’s lead, Coinbase will launch an NFT marketplace after its plans to launch a lending business got scrapped by the SEC. This comes as no surprise given the amount of revenue that’s up for grabs in the space: market leader OpenSea generated $70 million of revenue in the last 30 days alone (annualized, this would translate into 74% of Coinbase revenue for 2020… remember when we said we may be in a NFT bubble?). Ah, and Bill Miller came out very bullish on Coinbase as he sees it as the default position for growth investors chasing crypto kicks.
- A total of $17 billion has so far been invested in Crypto projects as of mid-June. Annualized, this would account for more than 11% of total VC investment in 2020. According to Galaxy’s Alex Thorn, the median valuation in crypto is 50% higher than in the broader VC space. If you believe non-crypto VC valuations are already inflated, then the below may make you squeamish…
- Evolve has launched Canada’s first multi-crypto ETF, joining the other four Canadian Bitcoin ETFs that were launched this year.
- The DoJ has launched a National Crypto Enforcement Team, which will be comprised of anti-money laundering experts and cybersecurity analysts. What we really want to know is the average age of this group...
- El Salvador is mining BTC with energy coming from volcanoes. An irrelevant fact? Yes. Incredibly cool? Absolutely.
Bitcoin's ETF
One of the slowest moving stories in the crypto space has been the approval of a Bitcoin ETF in the US.
Bitcoin ETFs are available in Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Jersey, and Germany, but not in Tim’s birthplace (is this why he keeps running away?) as the SEC has historically refused to approve them on the back of perennial worries about fraud and manipulation given the lack of visibility provided by exchanges. Proposals for BTC ETFs were first filed in 2013 by the Winklevoss Brothers (yes, the Armie Hammer Harvard rowing twins in The Social Network).
