The chief investment officer for Bitwise Asset Management has laid out his argument for why a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) will get the greenlight from regulators later this year.
Speaking in an interview with CNBC’s ETF Edge, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan claimed to be optimistic that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a Bitcoin ETF before the end of this year.
Hougan argued that there was no significant difference in fraud risk between Bitcoin and other commodities, saying there are “certainly instances of fraud and manipulation” in all markets.
As reported by The Daily Hodl, Hougan explained,
I don’t think they’re materially worse in the Bitcoin market and so, if the same standards are applied to oil, natural gas, gold, silver, et cetera, that have allowed ETF to launch in those commodities if those same standards are applied to Bitcoin and other crypto assets.
Hougan said the quality of filings around Bitcoin ETFs had “improved dramatically” over the past year, with multiple companies in addition to Bitwise providing federal regulators with lots of data to answer their questions.
The CIO predicted that the “cumulative weight of evidence” being put forth by the industry would force the SEC to move forward with an approval.
According to Hougan, a Bitcoin ETF will be “great for investors” due to providing more protections and leading to better market products:
It’s going to dramatically lower prices to access the crypto market that could save people billions of dollars over the long term, so I’m very hopeful we get it this year.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
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