All About Bitcoin's Mainstream Acceptance & Blockchain ETF
Zacks Investment Research | Feb 22, 2021 01:00AM ET
Bitcoin crossed the $57,500-mark as on Feb 21, 2021, 9.59 AM, up about 76% past month. Notably, bitcoin soared about 200% last year. Institutional interest and greater corporate acceptance have mainly led to this buoyancy. The latest surge came on the back of Blackrock (NYSE:BLK), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).
Last week, the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock as quoted on bitcoin.com .
The cryptocurrency also gained this height by virtue of Tesla’s TSLA investment of $1.5 billion, which made it the biggest company to show support to the otherwise controversial cryptocurrency. Tesla would start accepting payment for its electric vehicles in the currency.
Last week, Mastercard (NYSE:MA) announced that it will let certain cryptocurrencies directly on its network and also announced in mid-Feb that U.S. cardholders can add their BitPay Prepaid Mastercard to Apple Wallet, making it more user-friendly to buy everyday items using the cryptocurrency payment service.
Before this, PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) PYPL had also announced such a move. PayPal's Competitor Square (SQ) launched support for bitcoin back in 2018 through its Cash app. Square also bought $50 million in bitcoin in October as part of a larger investment in cryptocurrency.
Corporations’ greater acceptance in allowing customers to hold bitcoin and other virtual coins in their online wallets has been favoring the cryptocurrency. David Marcus, the head of Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Financial, also known as F2, said he hopes the Facebook-backed cryptocurrency called Diem will hit the market in 2021. as quoted in a source .
Sergey Nazarov, the cofounder of Chainlink, said a few days back that “rising inflation and increasingly negative views of modern monetary policy are forcing investors to look for alternative ways to preserve the value of their capital,” gold as ‘stimulus asset .’
What’s Brewing on the ETF Front?
A bitcoin ETF could finally see the day of the light in 2021 as VanEck recently filed an application with the SEC. Notably, the SEC had earlier rejected several bitcoin ETF proposals. Investors should note that though the United States is yet approve a bitcoin ETF, Canada has rolled it out.
Purpose Investment’s bitcoin ETF officially started trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the ticker “BTCC” on Feb 18. The fund has collected $421.8 million in assets under management (AUM) in two days. Bloomberg Intelligence ETFs analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted the Purpose Investment’s bitcoin ETF could amass $1 billion in assets by the end of next week, as quoted on coindesk.com.
There has been an improvement in the United States too. Osprey Fund’s bitcoin trust is now open for retail investors via OTC. The fund is designed similarly to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, but looks to compete with lower fees.The keeps track of the balances for all users and updates them on each transaction.
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Also, ETFs offering exposure to the blockchain ecosystem via semiconductor companies that make chips for bitcoin mining can be played. The most-popular funds include iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
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