Last week, Van Eck filed another S-1 seeking to create a Bitcoin-based ETF. The VanEck Bitcoin Trust anticipates trading on the Cboe BZX Exchange. The Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the performance of the MVIS CryptoCompare Bitcoin Benchmark Rate less the expenses of the Trust’s operations. This is not the first time that Van Eck has filed for a Bitcoin fund and previously the firm’s attempts have been shot down by the SEC.
The most recent filing may be due to the fact that SEC Chairman Jay Clayton is no longer at the helm of the Commission. Clayton departed last month and passed the baton over to now acting Chairman, Elad Roisman. As the Biden administration will take over the agency in the coming weeks, another change will be in the making at the SEC which leaves everything up in the air. Will Biden select a more digital asset friendly Chairman of the Commission? Who knows.
A recent blog post by Jan van Eck, CEO of his namesake firm, expresses his overall bullishness in the digital asset sector. van Eck noted that “more and more investors are buying Bitcoin,” as represented by BTC’s recent rapid rise in price:
“Even if you haven’t opened an account at a crypto exchange, you can increasingly buy Bitcoin on apps that you already have on your phone. The Cash app from Square has 30 million users, PayPal has 325 million active users, and Blockfi plans on launching a credit card that will give rewards in bitcoin for every purchase. This has broadened access beyond the large crypto exchanges such as Coinbase with 35 million users globally.”
He goes on to attest that Bitcoin is just indicative of a bigger change:
“I believe the emergence of a Bitcoin interest rate and data infrastructure suggests that the chances are growing that a new digital asset Wall Street is being built—and that we are still in the early days of that.”
As for purchasing Bitcoin, van Eck argues against his own ETF in a way as he points out you can buy BTC in many different ways. But an ETF may be an effective path for a new battalion of retail investors to invest in Bitcoin in a more traditional path.
If you are interested, you may read the S-1 filing here.