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The Securities and Exchange Commission approved late Wednesday spot bitcoin ETFs for trading in the US.
The approval has been years in the making and offers investors an easy way to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency.
The Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday approved spot bitcoin ETFs for trading in the US in a decision that has been years in the making.
The SEC approved 11 bitcoin ETF applications from different issuers, including Fidelity, BlackRock, and VanEck, among others, according to a document posted to their website.
The bitcoin ETF approvals by the SEC were on an accelerated basis, and trading in the ETFs will begin on Thursday.
The spot bitcoin ETFs are similar to spot gold ETFs in that they hold bitcoin as an underlying asset of the fund, unlike bitcoin futures ETFs, which have already been approved for trading and hold onto futures contracts tied to bitcoin.
Analysts expect the spot bitcoin ETFs to boost demand for bitcoin as investors and even financial advisors can now easily allocate money to the cryptocurrency, which has a total market value of more than $900 billion.
That's because they would no longer have to jump through the hoops of opening up an account with a crypto custodian, buying the cryptocurrency directly, and dealing with different types of storage options for the asset.
Instead, a spot bitcoin ETF would allow a large swath of investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency from the convenience of their already established brokerage accounts.