Michael Wursthorn

speaker

1,567 appearances 29 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2017 last heard Nov 2021

Michael Wursthorn’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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WSJ Your Money Briefing · Bitcoin ETFs: What to Know If You Plan to Invest · 19 Oct 2021 podcast

There was a lot of enthusiasm that the SEC is finally going to at least permit some of these products.

And again, this has been an eight-year process, so there's been a lot of attention, a lot of eyes on the twists and turns of it.

Thanks for having me.

This ETF will work like any other ETF in terms of the underlying mechanics.

And just like any other ETF, it's holding a basket of securities.

And in this case, those securities are Bitcoin futures contracts, which trades separately and distinctly from Bitcoin itself.

But that's primarily what these funds are going to hold.

This fund, ProShares, and the other ones that eventually come online.

So this has been an eight-year effort, really.

It started in 2013 when the Winklevoss twins tried to get their first Bitcoin ETF application through the SEC.

That hasn't happened.

And basically, regulators have been very uncomfortable with this idea of opening up the crypto market to fund investors when there is no ability for the SEC itself to

to surveil, to monitor the underlying trading of Bitcoin.

Right there, there's some concerns about the potential for fraud and manipulation in that trading.

And investors in those funds could be getting prices or seeing prices or be subject to some of that fraud and manipulation that wouldn't be in their best interest.

So there's been a huge holdup.

In August, this all sort of diverted onto a new path when SEC Chairman Gary Gensler suggested that Bitcoin futures could be a better tool to introduce to the market.

And because there is oversight by the SEC and other regulators of futures trading, that would get around some of those concerns around the actual crypto market itself.

So that started a path since the summer where a number of issuers, ProShares being first in this case, launching or at least starting the effort to get a Bitcoin futures ETF out there.

So 75 days later, here we are.

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