Fatfish Internet Group CEO Kin-Wai Lau expressed his confidence in the possibility whilst appearing on CNBC’s cryptocurrency segment “Coin Rush”, on Sunday (July 29th).

Somewhat unsurprisingly – however hopeful we might have been – the Winklevoss-brothers’ proposed bitcoin ETF was rejected for the second time last Thursday, by the Securities and Exchange Commission which cited lack of resistance to manipulation, as well as high instances of fraud and low investor protection as its reasons behind its decisions.

However, far from being written off, Kin-Wai Lau of Fatfish Internet Group has expressed his belief that markets could be ready for a Bitcoin ETF in as little as “a couple of months”.

Whilst the bitcoin price took a slight tumble after the news broke, Kin-Wai remains optimistic:

“It’s a very strong wave; it’s driven by institutional demand, it’s driven by adoption. [There’s] lots of interest this time around — trading volume is several times higher than during the lows.”

Markets have since recovered, with the bitcoin price bouncing back to around $8,100 soon after the fall. This has shored up confidence in the belief that the bullish market currently being witnessed is more robust than previous green periods. This has been attributed to increasing interest from institutional investors as well as momentum gaining traction behind “Web 3.0”.

Appetite in the market is arguably there, and this may cause the SEC to change its tune in the future. Even from within the agency itself, commissioner Hester M Peirce published an official statement of dissent regarding the SEC’s decision in which she stated the SEC had overstepped its “limited role”.

“I reject the role of gatekeeper of innovation — a role very different from (and, indeed, inconsistent with) our mission of protecting investors, fostering capital formation, and facilitating fair, orderly, and efficient markets.” Peirce said in her statement.

Kin-Wai may therefore have reasonable grounds for his optimism:

“I think we’re not far away; I think probably just a couple of months away from being ready for the market to generally accept an ETF.”

An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is essentially a security which tracks an index (In the case of the Bitcoin ETF, the Bitcoin price). It’s made up of a collection of assets which are grouped together and can be divided into shares. These shares are then traded or cashed in for the assets which make up their value. Naturally, the diversity of the assets which make up their price adds to investor protection. Their use is commonplace on Wall Street and they allow for investors to take advantage of arbitrage between the ETF price and the price of the assets which make them up.

Fatfish Internet Group is a global tech investment firm based in Australia. It recently got into the mining side of crypto operations, and in January invested $1 million for the controlling stake in APAC mining, a Singapore-based startup.

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