Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead believes a Bitcoin-ETF approval is insignificant in comparison to Bakkt and Fidelity launching cryptocurrency trading platforms for institutional investors.
Too Early for a Bitcoin ETF, Says Pantera Capital CEO
Yesterday, Pantera Capital founder and CEO, Dan Morehead spoke with Messari director of business development and panel moderator Katherine Wu at Bloomberg’s Institutional Crypto Conference.
Pantera Capital has made media waves lately as the firm is one of the first blockchain investment firms and a recent statement to investors floating around Twitter showed the firm’s investment portfolio down 73% on their cryptocurrency investments.
While speaking about the future of cryptocurrency Morehead downplayed the urgency and importance of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) backed by Bitcoin [coin_price].
When asked about whether the approval of a Bitcoin ETF and the belief that this would bring about a strong trend reversal held merit, Morehead said, “I think an ETF is years away.”
He explains that “very few people know that the last asset class that was certified for an ETF was copper. It took three years, even though copper has been around for 8,000 years.”
Investors, Curb Your Enthusiasm!
According to Morehead, “an EFT is not news” and the fact that everyone is hinging the future success of cryptocurrency on its approval is a bit naive. Morehead poetically opined that:
The SEC doesn’t want widows and orphans buying Bitcoin ETFs. They don’t even know if Bitcoin is officially a security.
Regarding recent Bitcoin ETF postponements and rejections, Morehead suggested that it is much too early for market makers to seek approval for such an instrument as the cryptocurrency market is still in its infancy and that profit savvy investor “overreacted.”
Basically, the CEO is suggesting that cryptocurrency investors pump the brakes and play the long game as the real noteworthy news events are “the Fidelity and the Bakkt thing.”
Even though Bakkt is scheduled to launch next month and Fidelity just launched their crypto platform for institutional investments, Morehead says,
When we look back at this five years from now, I think those are going to be the events that spurred an enormous amount of capital into the industry.
Morehead echoes former Goldman Sachs partner, Mike Novogratz, who puts the start of real institutional flows into cryptocurrencies for the same time period, namely Q1 and Q2 2019.
Bitcoinist also reported in July that the final decision for the SEC to rule on the SolidX/VanEck Bitcoin ETF is expected sometime in February or March 2019, according to legal expert, Jake Chervinsky.
Do you think the SEC will approve a Bitcoin-ETF anytime soon? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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