Experts from Grayscale, Tether and the Chamber of Digital Commerce reached a unanimous conclusion at Benzinga’s virtual Crypto & Blockchain Outlook webinar Thursday: the spot Bitcoin ETF approval has taken the cryptocurrency space from “not relevant to relevant.”
But does this mean cryptocurrency is — finally — going mainstream?
ETFs A ‘Big Victory For America’: Brock Pierce, co-founder of Tether (CRYPTO: USDT), sees a “more resilient Bitcoin” after the decision. The approval is great for American businesses and a “big thing” for investors to safely access the market, he said.
Pierce also said the desire to embrace the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exists “at the national level.” This may not immediately mean countries following the example of El Salvador. But, as Argentina shows, there is appetite for experimenting with Bitcoin for daily use cases.
Most interestingly, Pierce said the probability of government intervention and a “war on Bitcoin” has “substantially decreased.”
Still, prices haven’t kept up with the bullish expectations from industry experts. A surprise?
Grayscale’s ‘Incredibly High Level’ Of Conviction: Not at all, says Grayscale’s global head of ETFs David LaValle.
Grayscale expected significant Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTC: GBTC) outflows following the conversion of its trust into an exchange-traded fund, LaValle told the Benzinga webinar.
A “100% market share” was not to be expected, but that does not deter Grayscale from being “incredibly bullish” on the asset class, he said.
“The approachable ETF,” as LaValle jokingly called it, sees Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) as a digital store of value. The SEC’s decision set a precedent that LaValle said he hopes will allow Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) to follow. Still, he puts the chances of a spot Ethereum ETF approval at only “50-50.”
BlackRock’s Pivot … Why Now? In the panel discussion, participants weighed in on Larry Fink’s 180 on digital assets – the BlackRock CEO went from seeing Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering” to “big believer.”
Alex Chizhik, COO of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, said BlackRock started to see the demand in the market and decided to act on it. Unlocking Bitcoin as an investable asset class also allows funds to offer other financial products such as Bitcoin options…
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