Todd Rosenbluth – head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA Research – mentioned in a recent interview that he thinks a bitcoin or crypto-based exchange-traded fund will appear in the United States within the next year or two.

Rosenbluth Still Thinks It’ll Be a While Before We See a BTC ETF in the U.S.

Rosenbluth comments:

We’ve got a number of firms that have either gone through the filing process or have previously filed but are waiting for more clarity. The SEC is less likely to try to pick a winner, we think, as to who comes first, and we are more likely to see them – if they do approve any ETF – approve multiple bitcoin-related ETFs. We’ve got a number of firms that have entered, and we think we’re likely to see one in the coming year or two, but we don’t have a firm time frame as to when the answer would be yes.

Among the many financial firms to submit applications for a bitcoin ETF is Van Eck, which is no stranger to this kind of territory or process. The company has made several attempts in the past to try and get the greenlight on a bitcoin ETF only to have the door slammed in its face by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Perhaps this time will prove to be the charmer…

But at the end of the day, Rosenbluth is still saying we probably will not see such a product in the U.S. right away. Over the past few months, we have seen signs that the SEC is becoming more open towards the idea following Canada’s release of several bitcoin and crypto-based exchange-traded funds. Individuals such as Hester Pierce say it was foolish for the SEC to turn down the possibility of such a product in the past.

However, the fact that Rosenbluth believes it will be another 12 to 24 months before anything serious happens tells us that perhaps the SEC is still slow in its reaction times. The fact is that the United States is now facing serious competition from its neighbor to the north as well as from regions of Europe, which have released products similar with crypto ETFs over the years.

Running Behind?

Over the past few months, Canada has unveiled two bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds, along with one that runs on Ethereum, which means the U.S. is going to have to work hard to catch up if it still wants to be taken seriously as a global financial innovator and leader, and yet many analysts still suggest the SEC will take its time in deciding.

Jamie Wise, for example, is the founder of Buzz Indexes. He acknowledges that while bitcoin is more popular than ever, his own company likely is not going to incorporate any BTC into its ETF proposals due to beliefs that they will not garner approval at this time.

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