The owner of the largest US options exchange has submitted an application for a potential first … [+]
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Cboe Global Markets Inc. yesterday submitted an application to the SEC to list a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The owner of the largest U.S. options exchange, Cboe Global Markets Inc., proposed to list and trade the shares of a bitcoin trust by VanEck, a New York-based investment management firm. If granted approval, the VanEck Bitcoin Trust could become the first ETF with exposure to the cryptocurrency in the U.S. World’s largest ETF servicer State Street Corporation
STT
This is the latest attempt by Cboe to list a bitcoin ETF since 2016 when Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss proposed one of the first such products later rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the 92-page decision released in July 2018, the commission cited the susceptibility of bitcoin and bitcoin markets to manipulation.
Could this time be a charm? Since 2016, bitcoin’s market cap has grown almost a hundred-fold, recently hitting the $1 trillion mark. Publicly traded companies like Tesla
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Cboe’s latest proposal argues that the explosion of digital assets and U.S. investors’ increased exposure to bitcoin over the past years through OTC bitcoin funds has increased potential risks for investors, including volatility and management fees, which could be eliminated through granting access to a bitcoin exchange-traded product.
Perhaps the explosion of the cryptocurrency industry over the past year and the success story of the first North American bitcoin ETF launched in Canada two weeks ago, which reached well above $400 million in trading volume in just two days, could tip the scale this time and be enough to convince regulators of the readiness of U.S. investors to embrace alternative bitcoin products.
This could also prove a chance for Cboe to redeem itself in another way. In 2017 the company was one of the first in the American market to roll out bitcoin futures but quickly abandoned the initiative amid the market cooldown following the ICO bonanza. CME Group
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