Chris’ note: There’s been a huge buzz around bitcoin this week. As we looked at on Monday, that’s due a flurry of announcements by Wall Street firms that they’re going to make it easier for folks to invest.
But the news that’s been getting the most attention is BlackRock’s filing for a bitcoin ETF. It’s the world’s largest asset manager. And if it gets approval, it could mean a whole new level of adoption for the cryptocurrency.
And as former Wall Street insider Nomi Prins reveals in today’s insight, there’s good reason to be optimistic about BlackRock’s chances. That means now is a great time to buy bitcoin… before mainstream investors pile in.
It’s a huge leap forward for bitcoin.
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager. It has about $9 trillion in assets under management. And on June 15, it filed to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (“ETF”).
If regulators give it the green light, it will allow investors to buy bitcoin through their brokerage account.
You’ll no longer have to rely on fraud-prone crypto exchanges… figure out how to use a digital wallet… or risk losing access to the crypto by forgetting your passcodes.
It’s a vote of confidence from the world’s largest asset manager.
And if the ETF goes ahead, it adds a level of legitimacy and accessibility that bitcoin currently lacks.
So today, we’ll look at the reasons this ETF could get approval.
I’ll also show why that’s bullish for bitcoin… and the best way to profit.
Watch What They Do, Not What They Say
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has been openly skeptical about bitcoin in the past.
Back in 2017, he called bitcoin an “index of money laundering.” And Fink isn’t the only Wall Street bigwig to do a 180-degree turn on bitcoin.
Jamie Dimon heads up JPMorgan Chase. He called cryptocurrencies a fraud while developing JPM Coin. It’s a cryptocurrency Dimon’s bank has used internally to settle more than $300 billion in payments.
Fink sees where the future of money is headed. And he wants a piece of the action.
The BlackRock application is for a “spot” bitcoin ETF. Unlike the bitcoin ETFs around today, which are based on a kind of derivative known as a futures contract, this would hold bitcoin with a third-party custodian.
As BlackRock put it in its filing…
The Shares [in the ETF] are intended to constitute a simple means of making an investment similar to an investment in bitcoin rather than by acquiring, holding, and trading bitcoin directly on a peer-to-peer or other basis or via a digital asset exchange.
Here’s what this means in plain English. The Blackrock ETF would closely track the price of bitcoin. It would also simplify the process of buying bitcoin thanks to the custodial arrangement.
In other words, it would open bitcoin investing to millions of investors who aren’t prepared to buy bitcoin on a crypto exchange and store it in a wallet.
I don’t just mean retail investors. A bitcoin ETF would open up bitcoin to Wall Street money managers. That would take adoption to a new level.
But a big question remains. Will regulators give it the thumbs up? Or will they quash it, like they’ve done with past requests?
Three Reasons BlackRock Will Succeed
That Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has shot down every application so far for a spot bitcoin ETF.
But there are reasons why this time may be different.
As the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock has connections and influence other ETF providers can only dream of. If there’s a company that knows how to navigate the system and get things done, it’s BlackRock.
Also, the company has a stellar track record when it comes to getting ETF approvals. Out of the 575 ETFs it’s proposed, the SEC has only said no to one. That’s an impressive success rate.
Finally, Fink and the rest of the team may have found a way to win the SEC’s favor.
In their proposal, they included something called a surveillance-sharing agreement. Basically, the Nasdaq would oversee the pricing data for the spot market price.
In other words, one of the world’s largest exchanges would keep an eye on the spot market price.
This could help address the SEC’s concerns about market manipulation. Plus, the SEC has emphasized the importance of surveillance-sharing agreements in the past. So that bodes well for BlackRock.
What This Means for You
We’ll have to wait and see if the SEC gives the go-ahead for BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF.
But that BlackRock sees bitcoin as a viable asset class is a reminder to investors that bitcoin isn’t going away.
This shouldn’t be your sole basis for investing in bitcoin. But it brings a level of legitimacy to bitcoin we haven’t seen since PayPal, Square, and Tesla announced their support for bitcoin in late 2020 and early 2021.
So, now is a good time to buy. Bitcoin is up about 82% in 2023. But it’s still 54% below its all-time high of about $68,000, which it set in November 2021.
And if we get a bitcoin ETF, it’s easy to see hundreds of billions of dollars flow in. And when you have a $600 billion asset, like bitcoin, that will lead to huge price moves.
That said, with bitcoin, you never want to dive in headfirst.
Instead, I recommend investing a fixed dollar amount every couple of weeks or once a month.
PayPal and Cash App are two easy ways to do this. They allow you to start your bitcoin portfolio with as little as $1.
Regards,
Nomi Prins
Editor, Inside Wall Street With Nomi Prins
P.S. There’s one more reason why I’m bullish on bitcoin… Whether you like it or not, the U.S. will eventually adopt a digital form of the dollar.
As people become more familiar with digital currency, it will pave the way for wider adoption of bitcoin.
In fact, the Federal Reserve is about to unleash a new technology I’m calling the precursor to the digital dollar.
It will change the very nature of our money… and the financial system as we know it.
That’s why I hosted an emergency briefing where I revealed what the Fed has in store for you… and how you can prepare yourself for what’s coming.
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