In an interview on CNBC, Todd Rosenbluth of CFRA and a top ETF consultant Chris Hempstead said to Bob Pisani about the likelihood of a Bitcoin ETF.
So the pair said that the ETF itself is not the problem “It’s the underlying asset”. The fact that some of the exchanges are abroad and the regulations in those jurisdictions are a concern for the SEC. They also cited custody and price manipulation as the main concern. Custody seems to be getting better in some cases as Bakkt has proven with their latest Bitcoin futures product. They provide physical delivery and have a safe storage solution.
They also said they dont think we will not see a Bitcoin ETF too soon as it’s hard for asset managers like Bitwise to “disprove a negative”.
The question was asked about how companies like Bitwise and SolidX get round the manipulation and the fact that some of the brokerages are overseas.
It was said that the Grayscale method should be shown to the SEC as that is a fund that has worked and not been compromised.
VanEck and SolidX went to a select few private firms after working out a way to get around the SEC’s regulations to sell the product to a select few investors and Bitwise’s latest attempt failed. This has led to some soft sentiment in the digital currency world but all is not lost as there are said to be more plans to try again in the future.