Key Points
Bitcoin devotees are declaring a historic victory after US regulators approved a new, more accessible way for people to invest in the crypto asset after a decade of resistance..
On January 10, after a farcical false start, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the country..
The ETFs will be issued by a selection of big-name financial institutionsincluding BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templetonand will give people a way to invest in bitcoin through a brokerage, as if it were a stock..
The arrival of the new ETFs has been broadly celebrated by bitcoin investors, who believe they will legitimize the asset in the eyes of wealthy institutional investors and make it easier for laypeople to invest, thereby broadening demand and driving up the price..
This institutional bitcoin, as Mow calls it, could be prevented from exiting a closed-loop system by rules proposed by the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body of which the US is a member, requiring large institutions in some circumstances to only transact with one another..
