Bitcoin Breaks Through Securities Barrier: Registered Funds Want Exposure To BTC

An interesting trend looks to be developing among institutional players as their interest in the flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, continues to rise. This interest has in no small way been thanks to the frenzy around the Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which could be approved sooner than later.

Crypto commentator and music producer Marty Party recently drew the crypto community’s attention to an emerging trend among fund managers and their ETFs. He noted how these asset managers are amending the prospectus of funds they manage so they can gain exposure to Bitcoin. 

These institutions are said to be looking to use 15% to 50% of assets under their management to gain exposure to BTC. One way they will be looking to achieve this is through the Spot Bitcoin ETFs that could potentially launch anytime soon. 

Marty Party specifically highlighted the case of Advisors Preferred Trust, which is already looking to gain the SEC’s permission to invest up to 15% of its AuM in Bitcoin-related ETFs like Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. 

MicroStrategy’s Executive Chairman and Co-founder, Michael Saylor, had previously hinted that something like this was going to happen soon enough. Then, he suggested that more institutional players were going to direct more of their capital to Bitcoin. 

A rule that was implemented by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has also paved the way for more companies like MicroStrategy to include BTC on their balance sheet. 

The launch of Spot Bitcoin ETFs will also make it easier for these institutional investors to gain direct exposure to the flagship cryptocurrency. 

For a long time now, those who had a prior interest in the crypto token have had to either invest in Bitcoin futures ETFs or other Bitcoin derivatives on exchanges like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). But this is changing with the potential approval of a Spot Bitcoin ETF.

As highlighted recently by Bloomberg Analyst James Seyffart, Grayscale looks to set the lead the way, assuming all pending Spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved simultaneously. This is because the asset manager has already established itself with GBTC and would likely have more capital than other issuers upon launch. 

Bloomberg Analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted this fact and hinted that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could decide not to let Grayscale launch on day one because of this. If that doesn’t happen and all funds launch simultaneously, then Grayscale is likely to have a sort of ‘first mover advantage.’

However, other asset managers will be looking to assert their dominance by adopting different strategies. One such strategy will be these issuers undercutting themselves in terms of the fees they will charge to manage their respective funds. Invesco already made it known that they will be waiving fees for the first six months and the first $5 billion in assets.