July 12, 2018
Like any idea once let out of Pandora's box, Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin especially cannot now be unhatched. The inevitable question, therefore, is who will be able to enter the market early enough to be involved before the currency gains true mainstream acceptance. ETFs would be an excellent way to introduce the world's biggest trading brokerages, firms and all of their institutional and retail clients to a potentially revolutionary technology. Since the 'naked' Cryptocurrency space carries significant risks when traders and investors have to go it alone (private keys that once lost cannot be recovered, the hacking of unregulated exchanges etc) it can be argued that the SEC has a responsibility to create and allow exposure to the new space in a way that is consistent with its aims. The benefit of this is to be able to incorporate a potential major competitor to fiat markets into the global system whilst also preventing harm to traders and investors in an unregulated environment. There is no real downside.