Key takeaways

• Peter Schiff calls for the abolition of the SEC due to Bitcoin futures ETF approval.
• The gold bull describes the ETF as just another way to “gamble” on Bitcoin.
• Bitcoin continues to surge even as the ProShares ETF has an impressive first week.

Peter Schiff, founder of Europac Funds, who is also a known gold bull and Bitcoin opponent has said that the SEC’s approval of a Bitcoin ETF shows a high level of incompetence in the commission. For Schiff, the SEC should be abolished for taking a stance on Bitcoin that passed a message of the government’s endorsement of the largest cryptocurrency by market cap as this was bound to ‘mislead’ more people into buying Bitcoin.

“The SEC’s approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF is another reason to abolish the SEC. I have no objection to the ETF. My beef is that Bitcoin pumpers will now use the approval to sucker in more buyers based on the government’s supposed endorsement of Bitcoin by approving the ETF,” – Schiff.

Schiff also described the newly available ETF as just a new way to speculate on Bitcoin which he considers to have no real purpose apart from being a speculative asset.

“Now there’s a new way to gamble on Bitcoin. Anyone buying Bitcoin is gambling. But some gamblers don’t want to risk owning actual Bitcoin, so they gamble with Bitcoin futures instead. Now those who don’t want to risk buying futures contracts can gamble on a Bitcoin futures ETF.”

However, the cryptocurrency community has welcomed the arrival of the first Bitcoin futures ETF with much fanfare. This was to be expected as it has been a long time coming -over 8 years of rejected applications. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF which launched on the NYSE with the ticker BITO performed so well that it has been billed to have the best day one of any ETF in terms of “natural” by Bloomberg’s ETF Specialist Eric Balchunas. According to data from Bloomberg, the ETF hit $1 billion in trading volume on just its first day. It also ended the day with $570 million in assets. 

The Bitcoin market also surged on the day. Bitcoin is up 3.04% in the last 24 hours and is currently trading at around $64,695. Although in that period too it smashed a new all-time high of $67,000.

Meanwhile, some critics feel that the ETF is likely the worst thing to happen to Bitcoin. According to the pseudonymous investor and analyst Mr. Whale, the ETF is a Wall Street run show with no benefit to people outside of the big investment circles.