10 years of waiting for the Bitcoin ETF of the cryptocurrency community

The first Bitcoin ETF application was filed in the US on July 1, 2013 and was rejected after four years, but the cryptocurrency community did not give up.

January 11 became one of the most memorable days in the cryptocurrency industry when the first Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were listed on the US stock exchange. The event paves the way for investors to access Bitcoin without buying directly. Instead, they buy shares of the ETF, which will be backed by the fund's Bitcoin holdings.

Analysts say this is a big step forward for digital currency because the road to this milestone is not easy. The journey began on July 1, 2013, when twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, co-founders of Gemini, filed the first application for a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US. The dossier was reviewed many times. By 2017, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to refuse. At that time, financial and media experts said Bitcoin was not ready for a new era.

The Winklevoss family remained persistent. In 2018, they looked for a second chance. This time, the SEC continues to brush aside the argument on the grounds that Bitcoin is largely unregulated.

Years later, the digital currency community still hopes that the Bitcoin spot ETF will be approved to be listed on the stock exchange. This means that Bitcoin is seen as an asset, managed by law instead of being considered a speculative vehicle.

In 2021, Canada surprised everyone when Fidelity Canada launched the first spot Bitcoin ETF. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas assessed that this made Fidelity the largest asset manager with a Bitcoin ETF at that time. The progress in Canada helps the community have more hope waiting for new moves in the US. In 2022, a series of registration applications from large asset managers SkyBridge, Fidelity, Bitwise and Grayscale continued to be submitted to the SEC but remained unsuccessful.

At this time, the investment fund Grayscale Investments decided to sue the SEC after being refused. The lawsuit dragged on and on August 29, 2023, judge Neomi Rao of the US Court of Appeals ordered the SEC to agree to Grayscale's application. This does not guarantee Grayscale's request will be accepted, but has sparked confidence that a spot Bitcoin ETF will be launched. During this time, large funds such as BlackRock and ARK continued to file with the SEC.

In early January, ETF issuers announced that they had completed their documents, waiting for the SEC's response. On January 9, the SEC's X account posted a notice that the Commission had approved the application for a spot Bitcoin ETF. But just a few dozen minutes later, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler denied the information, saying the SEC's X account was attacked by hackers.

Until January 10 for this to come true and one day later, the funds were officially listed. According to Reuters, this is a turning point for Bitcoin in particular and the broader cryptocurrency industry in general. The listing became a game changer for Bitcoin when it was recognized as a legal, regulated investment asset, on par with gold.

Cointelegraph cited research by ETF providers showing that if only three investment funds BlackRock, Invesco and ARK reach their target, within 12 months, they can bring in an additional 11 billion USD to the Bitcoin market.

The question is, will an SEC-approved Bitcoin ETF compete with today's cryptocurrency exchanges? The answer is no. Billions of dollars from the traditional market will be absorbed by the Bitcoin ETF, along with the growing interest of investors in the new asset class. More people will look to exchanges. Leading companies like Coinbase will benefit as the cryptocurrency community expands.

However, on the contrary, SEC approval means legal pressure on the cryptocurrency ecosystem will increase. The community may no longer witness galloping price increases in the short term. The market is more strictly regulated by traditional financial institutions. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin price has almost not increased as expected, even decreasing from 48.9 thousand to 46 thousand USD.

Lucas Kiely, Chief Investment Officer of Yield App, told Cointelegraph: "Regulatory pressure has even caused the price of Bitcoin to fall. The global economic context will also contribute to shaping the price. However in 2024, Bitcoin will finally become the mainstream".

And Andrey Stoychev, Project Director at cryptocurrency brokerage company Nexo, said that news that the SEC approved a Bitcoin ETF will help this digital currency increase in price even though in the short term it may go down.

"Remember the period of 2013, when gold ETFs were approved. The market went through a short-term correction, but then reality proved that gold prices always go up. Surely Bitcoin will reach its all-time high era. ETF approval is a guarantee

Bitcoin surpassed $49,000 for the first time in more than two years but quickly retreated to the old price range of $46,000 when the market had mixed reactions.

Bitcoin just hit $49,000 per unit late last night for the first time since December 2021 as US-listed Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) began trading amid rising expectations. High. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization increased from less than 46,000 USD at the beginning of the day to more than 47,000 USD last night, then jumped sharply to reach 49,042 USD per unit at around 10pm. But this price only held for a few minutes, Bitcoin quickly dropped below 46,000 USD.

Today, this digital currency mainly fluctuates around the 46,000 USD mark, almost moving sideways in market price compared to yesterday.

Cryptocurrency stocks also fell, erasing yesterday's gains. Coinbase's stock price fell 5%, while Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms both fell more than 10%.

The above developments are somewhat out of phase with the scenario written by many analysts about an excited market when the Bitcoin ETF is approved. According to CoinDesk, the price of Bitcoin is dancing and has not really broken out yet because investors are closely monitoring the amount of capital that 11 funds will attract on the first day.

Data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) shows that Bitcoin ETFs recorded trading volume worth 4.6 billion USD as of yesterday afternoon. Among the 11 funds, products of two asset management giants BlackRock and Fidelity dominate the trading volume. This level is considered by experts to be relatively strong compared to the norm for a newly launched ETF.

Experts' opinions on the Bitcoin ETF are also mixed, somewhat affecting market psychology. Many people agree that the above turning point allows investors to take advantage of the unstable price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies to make profits without the hassle of having to learn dozens of concepts of this market such as self-custody ( self-custody), blockchain, private keys...

Erik Voorhees - one of the first successful entrepreneurs from cryptocurrency, said the most important result of Bitcoin ETFs is to prevent governments from "treating draconianly" with cryptocurrencies. According to him, when tens of millions of older people can still passively own Bitcoin, the political and economic damage from a ban will be significantly less. "Bitcoin is now no longer just an asset for shadowy super programmers," he added.

However, some parties are still concerned that the emergence of an ETF means that Bitcoin is collaborating with the original "enemy" of digital currency - traditional finance (TradFi), large banks and even Wall Street. This threatens to break Bitcoin's "original promise" of decentralization, empowerment, and the freedom to circulate money to everyone without involving traditional financial institutions.

Nicky Gomez - expert at cryptocurrency consulting firm XReg Consulting, warns that ETFs attracting capital from traditional financial institutions will make the Bitcoin market more centralized, while its nature is decentralized. This makes the digital asset "far from its true value and potential". He also warned against causing a greater divide between crypto purists and Bitcoin ETF advocates.

Moody's analysts say the approval of Bitcoin ETFs is a landmark moment for the cryptocurrency industry, likely to attract institutional interest. big. However, its impact on the overall investment market is negligible because cryptocurrencies are still a small asset class.

"Bitcoin represents a relatively small portion of investors' portfolios and ETF approval is not necessarily a reason for them to increase their allocation to this asset class," said Cristiano Ventricelli, Vice President of Technical Assets number at Moody's, emphasis