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Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably heard that spot Bitcoin ETFs were finally approved by the SEC this week. That set the stage for 11 such offerings from the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and ARK 21Shares to begin trading on Thursday. On this episode of Unchained, Nate Geraci, president of the ETF Store; Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence; and James Seyffart, research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence discussed the initial record trading volumes, the mechanics of how the funds work, the botched roll-out process, the pointed commentary from SEC commissioners, the potential for future Ethereum spot ETFs and predictions for total inflows. Plus, they explain why brokerage firms like Vanguard, Merrill and others were blocking customer access to the ETFs.
Show highlights:
- The initial impact and trading volumes on the launch day of the ETFs
- How BlackRock’s ETF, IBIT, had a lot of volume in pre-market and what that means
- Why Eric was surprised that BlackRock proceeded with a waiver for its ETF, but realized that it was “genius marketing”
- Whether there’s a problem that ETFs don’t trade 24/7, unlike BTC itself
- Why James says the spot ETFs are not going to have significant premiums or discounts to NAV
- What the percentage premium is and how it will play out with spot Bitcoin ETFs
- Whether the SEC will ever allow in-kind creation and redemption
- Why Nate and Eric believe that the SEC’s denials of spot Bitcoin ETFs for a decade was “completely suboptimal” for retail investors
- How the SEC commissioners pointedly disagreed with each other in their comments and dissents
- The politics of the approval process
- Whether Ethereum spot ETFs will be approved next
- Why some big platforms and brokerages are not offering the spot Bitcoin ETFs
- How RIAs will respond to the ETF and whether there’s going to be mainstream adoption by advisors
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