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The approval of several exchange traded funds by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was an important milestone for the asset class and will increase pent-up demand for it, said Jonathan Steinberg, WisdomTree CEO.
WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust (BTCW) is among the ETFs that were approved on Wednesday. Others include Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC), iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund (BRRR), Ark 21Shares Bitcoin Trust (ARKB), Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO), VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL), WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust (BTCW), Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust (FBTC), Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB), and Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC).
“You haven’t seen this level of competition on exposure on day one ever,” said Steinberg. “This means that there are firms that believe there is merit to the asset class.”
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC:GBTC) is so far the second largest spot commodity ETF in the world with $28B of assets under management.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is up 161.28% from a year ago, 53.06% from the last six months, and 6.77% just in the last five days. With a supply of 19,595,962.0, and a market cap of $917.45B.
A 1% to 3% allocation to the coin “might be a very sensible decision to make,” said Steinberg, amid speculation that it might rally strongly through the end of the decade.
Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, forecasted Bitcoin to reach $1.5M by 2030.
“I think you have to be very careful,” said Steinberg. “It’s a tremendous amount of hype. Some people are speaking in such explosive terms. I think you do want to take that with some caution.”
He added that the limited supply nature of the coin makes it more attractive to investors, “particularly outside of the U.S., where you have very high inflation or very weak banking systems.”
“When you contrast Bitcoin with the fees on currencies, it’s very attractive,” he concluded. “But the mechanics here are going to be very similar to gold.”
