What do you expect to happen with Bitcoin ETF?
We have heard the likes of us some alys thinking
that and the applications will fall short of the requirements
by the FCC. I mean, I think overall
the expectation is almost at 90% that we are going
to get an approval next week, but of course
, there is room for that not to happen,
right? And it doesn't get approved. We did
have one analyst say that in Asia and that just
led to a sell off of Bitcoin around the world
. You know, it's very jittery with these expectations
. There is really laser focus on Bitcoin's price right
now. Um So, you know, it's always
been a volatile asset, but I think there's so
much focus on the price right now that it can
make it move um even more jump around even more
than it usually does. That's sort of exactly one
of the reasons why regulators have been hesitant about these
products, right? I mean, that ordinary investors
might not be able to stomach all of that volatility
, not to mention the potential for market manipulation.
So what's changed? I think that's exactly right.
I mean, it's going to be, I think
, very interesting to see what's in the disclosures,
you know, what is in the small print for
investors to read before they go ahead and invest in
these types of products. Because the volatility is really
extreme. And that's been a characteristic of Bitcoin,
right from its inception, I think we have to
remember that Bitcoin is still only 15 years old.
It's a very new asset and it's the really the
lead asset in an entirely new emerging asset class of
cryptos in, you know, more generally and so
this volatility, it's it's a characteristic, it's a
feature, it's not a bug and it's got to
be something that investors are informed about so that they
know how to place it and invest in it and
have it as part of their asset allocation. Um
you know, treat it in the way that it's
supposed to be treated, which at the moment,
advisers are saying have a very small part of your
overall portfolio in a volatile asset like Bitcoin because while
the upside is very appealing and we've obviously seen historic
returns coming from Bitcoin as an asset class, the
draw downs can be particularly painful. So as always
with investors, looking at investment time frame and looking
at your overall asset allocation when it comes to Bitcoin
, the reason that we have this tear on crypto
assets leading up to this announcement by the is the
expectation that we will get a new wave of investors
, of different sets of investors being, having access
to cryptocurrencies, right? Tell us a little bit
about how mainstream these crypto tokens have become and how
much of a game changer this would be. So
to date really what we've seen with Bitcoin and more
broadly in the crypto uh space and industry is,
it's really been re retail driven. Um So it's
, it's bottom up, it's retail driven. That's
how Bitcoin came to be in the world. Actually
, it's through bottom up. Um organic growth.
It wasn't the institutions coming in, it was not
top down. So what we are likely to see
with a Bitcoin ETF is continued retail flows because ETF
S make that far more accessible. I think the
sticking point with a lot of retail investors, it
comes to Bitcoin and crypto in general is how to
access it. Investors, retail investors are not familiar
with the crypto exchanges, how to on board onto
these new financial institutions. It's not broadly available in
brokerage accounts and that's about to change. So it's
going to become much easier for retail. But the
big shift that we're likely to see with this ETF
is the passive institutional flows that can now start moving
into this asset class and they may move into Bitcoin
as a stand alone investment or it's part of the
overall asset allocation for any institutional portfolio. So that's
really going to move the needle and that's why everyone
is getting so excited at this moment because it's this
upcoming era of institutionalized crypto.