The Bitwise head of research says ‘We’re closer than we’ve ever been’ to Bitcoin ETF

After the VanEck and SolidX ETF withdrawal, it seemed like we were an age away from getting an ETF to market but Bitwise's head of research has had his say.

Hougan, former CEO of Inside ETFs was on CNBC and said: 

“We’re closer than we’ve ever been before to getting a bitcoin ETF approved,””

“Sometime before Monday, the SEC has to give its decision: yes or no. They have no more ways to postpone it at this point,”

“We will hear clearly between now and Monday what they think, and then, depending on what we hear, we’ll go forward from there. But it should be a very exciting week.”

“The evolution of the bitcoin market over the last two years is from night to day,”

A very interesting point he made was that some of the SEC’s chief concerns about approving a bitcoin ETF, mainly custody and proper regulation are starting to get sorted now.

“Two years ago, there were no regulated, insured custodians in the bitcoin market. Today, ... there are big names like Fidelity and CoinBase [with] hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance from firms like Lloyd’s of London,” 

“Two years ago, there were no regulated crypto exchanges. Now, six of the 10 big crypto exchanges are regulated by the New York Department of State with market surveillance technologies in place. And, most importantly, two years ago, it was a one-sided, inefficient market. Today, we have $200-plus million in volume and regulated futures every day.”

As always the FXStreet team will be keeping up with the situation and will bring you any news good or bad asap throughout the week.