If you haven't been following, there has been a 3 year old quest taking place under the surface where brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have been working to offer a Bitcoin ETF to the wall-street investing community.
Some of this was mentioned earlier in a post by @calaber24p
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@calaber24p/why-a-bitcoin-etf-will-change-everything-for-all-cryptocurrencies
When looking at the filings you will notice that there have been a number of amendments which probably means the ETF is getting close to approval, although that doesn't necessarily mean it is imminent.
You can see their regulatory filings here:
https://www.bamsec.com/companies/1579346/winklevoss-bitcoin-trust/chronological
As you can see they recently filed an S-1/A, changing the filing of COIN (the potential ticker symbol for the etf) from the Nasdaq to BATS Global Markets. BATS has become popular lately with newly launched ETFs.
Currently, each share would be priced at 1/10th the price of a Bitcoin, although that is subject to change.
If this happens, it would be the first Bitcoin ETF available and would most likely see heavy demand by investors looking to take a stake but not wanting to invest in the cryptocurrency itself.
One would also have to wonder what would happen to GBTC. As of now, it is one of the few investment vehicles available for investing in Bitcoin currently and it is also valued at 1/10th of a Bitcoin. However, if you look at the current price of $98 it is trading almost double the current price of Bitcoin (1/10 X $577). When a new (better) investment vehicle comes out, what happens to GBTC? I would imagine it won't trade double the value of Bitcoin for much longer...
The more important question for us: What happens to Steem and Steemit when this ETF is launched? Does Steem follow in the expected increase in demand as Bitcoin and also the possible increase in price?
Does Steem eventually deserve an ETF?
Leave some comments below what this could mean for Steemit
Follow: @jrcornel
I think anything that elevates the crypto/blockchain public conversation is good for Steem at this point. There's plenty of room for competing currencies, and I think generating interest in the concept is always a good step. I actually stumbled upon Steemit while looking to buy into BTC as an asset, so this speaks to my experience personally :)
I'm a developer and kind of techy and dabble in the market. My wife is an artist and writer. One of the trickier things about BitCoin and other cryptos is simply participation, which is intimidating for many people ("it's for nerds and investors, right?"). Steemit, however, has a strong leg up in getting people active in blockchain and NOT thinking about the underlying technology or theory.
Blockchain doesn't come up in typical conversation, but "did you see x on reddit?" is reasonably typical. It's the practical application that makes blockchain real for my wife or non-techy friends.
I think you're right and it helps add a level of legitimacy to investors who were maybe weary before.