Yesterday, Fidelity filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. SEC requesting approval to create a Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).
If approved, Fidelity would be able to buy and hold Bitcoin in a trust and sell shares of that trust over the existing stock market. Similar to a common low-cost index fund.
People without the technical chops to understand the ins and outs of blockchains would finally have an opportunity to invest in Bitcoin through their financial advisors or other familiar avenues.
From Bitcoin Magazine: All of this comes after VanEck,Skybridge Capital, NYDIG, and Valkyrie Digital Assets filed for their own ETFs, alongside Goldman Sachs announcing a note offering tied to the ARKK Innovation ETF, a fund capable of investing in bitcoin.If all of these ETFs are approved, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect a considerable increase in the investment of bitcoin. Regardless of the outcome, it is exposing the traditional finance world to bitcoin while being backed by well-trusted names. And the fact that this is all occurring at once suggests there has been, for some time, a building interest in bitcoin.
“A considerable increase in the investment of bitcoin” is one way to say it.
I read that an estimated 10% of Americans hold Bitcoin (or other cryptocurrencies), compared to Gallop’s recent findings that 55% of Americans hold stocks in 2020.
Opening up Bitcoin to this large of a market would drive up the price of the fixed circulating Bitcoin supply quite a bit.
Finally, the name of the fund (“Wise Origin”) seems to be a hat tip to the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin – “Satoshi Nakamoto”.