Comment
Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
IShares, the largest U.S. family of ETFs, with nearly $4 trillion in assets under management.Earlier, investors expected SEC approval of BlackRock’s fund to breathe new life into Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets, says Peter Eberle, president and chief investment officer of Castle Funds, which runs three private placement funds with exposure to Bitcoin.“It would absolutely end the crypto winter,” Eberle told Forbes Advisor several weeks ago.What gives? Before Wednesday’s volcanic development, why had industry players been optimistic—albeit guardedly—about proposals from BlackRock, as well as from other firms, when so many others had failed? Why did BlackRock’s move embolden its rivals?What Is a Spot Bitcoin ETF?The SEC has already approved plenty of Bitcoin ETFs and other types of crypto exchange-traded funds. But until Wednesday, the market regulator had only been comfortable greenlighting funds that track cryptocurrency futures or own the stocks of companies with indirect exposure to crypto.Fund operators wanted to sell funds that offer direct crypto exposure. Applications from BlackRock—as well as similar filings by Ark Investment Management and Grayscale—aimed to provide investors with just that—straightforward, easy-to-trade funds that would directly track the current price of BTC, rather than prices of futures contracts.What’s the difference? Spot prices are how derivative traders in the options and futures markets refer to asset prices for immediate delivery rather than future delivery. In simpler terms, the spot price is the current price of a commodity at the present moment, rather than guesses at what the price might be later.Spot prices are used as benchmarks for pricing derivative contracts. For instance, the spot price of a currency pair, such as the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro, is a reference point for currency hedging.BlackRock Aims To Address the SEC’s FearsWhat changed? What persuaded the SEC to say yes? BlackRock and others proposed funds
Add Comment