Bitcoin
BTC
The bitcoin price has reclaimed $30,000 per bitcoin this week after dropping under the psychological level as hype around a flurry of U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications returns—boosting the price of ethereum, Ripple’s XRP
XRP
Now, Mike Novogratz, the chief executive of crypto financial services company Galaxy Digital, has revealed his sources at two of the world’s largest asset managers, BlackRock
BLK
IVZ
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Novogratz, citing his contacts at the two asset managers that between then look after around $10 trillion of value, said it’s not a question of “if” but “when” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve at least one of a handful of ETF applications.
“It’s a big, big deal,” Novogratz said during Galaxy’s second-quarter earnings call with investors and analysts. “It’s a big deal because both our contacts, from the Invesco side and from the BlackRock side, get you to think that this is a question of when, not if—and so you’re kind of in your four to six months if you had to put a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey audit.”
Novogratz added he sees signs of increased institutional investor participation in bitcoin, etheruem, XRP and crypto markets following last year’s crash.
“Institutions have come back some in the immediate term. They’ve come back in futures. They’ve come back in some of these stocks. But importantly, they’re coming back in structural ways,” Novogratz said, revealing a second-quarter net loss for Galaxy that narrowed from last year to $46 million from $555 million.
Last month, BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF application spurred a flurry of rival bids when it revealed it had filed a request with the SEC to launch an investment vehicle that would allow institutional and individual traders to gain exposure to bitcoin without directly buying and selling the asset on a cryptocurrency exchange.
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The SEC is due to issue a decision on Ark Invest’s spot bitcoin ETF application this weekend, though chief executive Cathie Wood has said she expects the regulator to punt the decision.
“I think … that August 13 will come and go,” Wood told Bloomberg, dialing back expectations ahead of the decision after previously trumpeting Ark’s first-in-line position. “I think the SEC, if it’s going to approve a bitcoin ETF, will approve more than one at once.”
Grayscale, the bitcoin, ethereum and crypto asset manager owned by Digital Currency Group, called on the SEC to approve all spot bitcoin ETF applications simultaneously.
“The SEC’s actions related to bitcoin ETFs should be done in a fair and orderly manner,” Grayscale’s Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm said in a statement. “As a disclosure-based regulator, the SEC should not pick winners and losers.”