Multiple reports are indicating the NYSE (NYSE:ICE) has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list to Proshares Bitcoin ETFs.
CNBC said the funds would track the Bitcoin Futures contracts trading on the CBOE and CME. Both contracts only recently launched. Brown Brothers Harriman would act as custodian for the funds.
The addition of an ETF will bring Bitcoin, and perhaps other cryptocurrencies, to a level that is far more accessible for retail investors. ETFs are touted as being preferable to actively managed mutual funds as they tend to have lower fees and provide greater liquidity. Regardless, any ETF will be at the whim of Bitcoin which has had an extremely volatile tenure in 2017. The digital currency started the year at less than $1000 per BTC. Today, it is valued at around $18,000 per BTC having topped at around $20,000.
It should be noted that NYSE has invested in Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency wallet and exchange. At the time of the investment in 2015, the NYSE said it would “work with Coinbase to bring additional transparency to Bitcoin pricing.”
The NYSE ia a wholly owned subsidiary of ICE,. The exchange registered global capital raising with $31.3 billion in proceeds from 88 transactions in 2017, almost twice the capital raised by any other exchange in the world.
The inclusion of Bitcoin on the CBOE and CME and potentially as an ETF further legitimizes the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.