Hello as always, and welcome to today’s edition of Overbit Weekly Round Up. It’s tough to get a handle on the markets in general, especially cryptocurrency markets, so it’s always important to step back and pay attention to how some of the week’s top stories are developing.
With our first story of this week’s edition, we take a look at the cryptocurrency markets and their response to a recent appointment made in the United States.
With just a few months under its belt, the Biden presidency is still well underway with appointing some of the more significant cabinet positions and department heads. One of these vacancies is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, who acts as one of the most critical figures in markets internationally, even for cryptocurrencies.
Biden’s nominee for this opening is Gary Gensler, former head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. As a nominee for the SEC chairman Gensler is especially notable, as he has previously signaled great interest and enthusiasm in bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets. This past week, Gensler went before Congress for his appointment hearing, and in it, he was quite clear on his stance about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency products. “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have brought new thinking to payments and financial inclusion, but they’ve also raised new issues of investor protection that we still need to attend to,” Gensler said.
Though few cryptocurrency enthusiasts will surely be thrilled by the idea of ‘investor protection’ becoming a more significant part of cryptocurrency markets, it’s clear that Gensler does not plan to take an antagonistic role with regards to the industry. It’s certainly too early to call anything. Still, with Citigroup calling Bitcoin’s current moment of fame a critical juncture just last week, it seems that a crypto-friendly regulator at the helm of one of the world’s most important financial groups might be something to keep an eye one.
Heading into our next story of the week, we see the first Bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund) coming to the United States markets. While Bitcoin sees more and more large institutional investors enter its markets, creating an ETF could bring Bitcoin to more traditional investors to get even more eyes on the ever-growing investment. Making a Bitcoin ETF will lower the gap between the crypto and traditional markets, which could lead to even more significant growth within the markets.
This year, Valkyrie Digital Assets went towards the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) to start the beginning of the first Bitcoin ETF in the states. After this took place, NYDIG followed closely behind them within just a month, as well as CBOE Global Markets, an SEC filing that had been rejected multiple times. In the end, Purpose Investment managed to grab hold of the first Bitcoin ETF in Canada, and this ETF immediately saw success within the early few days of its beginnings.
Ultimately, this ETF will help make Bitcoin a more credible investment to many big named players. It will also serve as a bridge for the gap between the new digital markets and older traditional markets.
It appears that this is just another stepping stone on the way for Bitcoin to grow to massive heights. Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Overbit’s Weekly Round Up, and we look forward to seeing you on next week’s edition of Weekly Round Up.