Bitcoin ETFs are off to a bad start. Will things improve?

The pathetfSECETFETFETF to approval for the first bitcoin exchange-traded funds (s) was long and arduous. Applications appeared before regulators in 2013, when the price of a bitcoin was just shy of $100 and nobody had heard of Sam Bankman-Fried or the phrase “to the Moon”. After a decade of rejection, promoters finally succeeded on January 10th, when the Securities and Exchange Commission () approved 11 applications for s that track the spot price of bitcoin, which was at the time above $46,000.The advent of bitcoin s was supposed to be a pivotal moment for the digital asset class. For years, devotees had hoped that such funds would attract strait-laced institutional investors, increase liquidity, and demonstrate the credibility and professionalism of crypto. They had also hoped that their approval might buttress demand for bitcoin, pointing to the precedent of a much older speculative asset. When State Street Global Advisors launched America’s first gold in 2004, the metal fetched less than $500 per ounce, below its price in the early 1980s. Over the years that followed, it soared in value, reaching almost $1,900 per ounce in 2011.