Andreas Antonopoulos: A Bitcoin ETF is Inevitable, but Damaging
Author of the book ‘Mastering Bitcoin’ and noted bitcoin advocate Andreas Antonopoulos believes that a Bitcoin ETF is imminent. However, he insists that the long-term implication of such fund will do more harm than good for the original cryptocurrency. Antonopoulos described an exchange traded fund(ETF) as a fund that has a custodian or a manager who creates a financial instrument that can be traded like a stock but in the actual sense of it, it isn’t a stock. So for a Bitcoin ETF, this fund is expected to hold Bitcoin, and then sell shares in the Bitcoin reserve that represent the price of Bitcoin.This system of investment allows people to buy the eventual shares as ‘stocks’ through their regular brokers, and traded on the stock market. Practically, in this case the investors do not hold or own actual Bitcoins. They simply own shares of Bitcoins owned and held by the custodian. So essentially, it only provides opportunities for market practitioners to speculate on Bitcoin price without actually holding it.
