Bitcoin is depreciating. This might be just the turnaround you have been waiting for. But is there really enough weight behind the short-term action to pummel Bitcoin lower?
A startup backed by Starbucks, Microsoft and a couple of other companies is said to potentially pave the way for the Bitcoin ETF. In an article on CNN, we read:
Starbucks going all-in on cryptocurrency is “the biggest news of the year for Bitcoin” — because it paves the way for a Bitcoin ETF, according to BK Capital Management founder Brian Kelly.
Starbucks, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Microsoft and BCG, among others, announced on Friday they are working to launch a new company called Bakkt. Along with enabling consumers to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at Starbucks, Bakkt will leverage Microsoft cloud to create an open and regulated, digital asset ecosystem, ICE announced on Friday.
“They’ll now have a U.S.-regulated exchange and they have a licensed warehouse, which is how commodities are stored and that’s going to make it a lot easier for an ETF to come through”, Kelly, a Bitcoin enthusiast, said on CNBC’s “Fast Money”.
This sounds almost fantastic – Starbucks giving Bitcoin a leg up. In reality, the possibility of a regulated marketplace for digital currencies being developed is a positive piece of news but it is only a possibility and the link between this initiative and a potential launch of a Bitcoin ETF is tenuous at best. And even if we see such a marketplace in operation, which might take years, we would still have to wait for the SEC to catch up and approve another Bitcoin ETF proposal, which might take years still. Assuming that we see some kind of speed up in the process, it still leaves us with a couple of years before an ETF could be approved. So, we wouldn’t bet the ranch on a Bitcoin ETF based on this piece of news. If we don’t see a sudden turnaround in the SEC’s approach, A Bitcoin ETF is nowhere around the corner.
