Ever since Bitcoin started breaking into the mainstream spotlight there has been a desire for those in the industry to help push its adoption with new investing tools. One such tool is the Bitcoin futures platform, which has garnered institutional buy-in, and the other is ETFs.

ETFs remain out of reach for Bitcoin, despite numerous efforts to try and get the go-ahead for the SEC in the USA. It began with the Winklevoss Twins who put forward two applications, but theirs and a bevvy of others, have all been shot down.

Bitcoin ETF would represent a massive step in the growth of the cryptocurrency. However, as it stands there are too many issues with the market including manipulation and uncertainty of its future.

That being said there is still a lot of hope for a Bitcoin ETF to come to fruition however the general feeling is that it will not be this year.

A change in mindset

the biggest thing holding back a bitcoin ETF appears to be the SEC’s attitude towards the market. they have said on numerous occasions that the coin needs to mature as an asset and be more normalised and legitimized in the eyes of institutional investors.

According to the chief executive officer at Genesis Global Trading, Michael Moro, This may only come once the current chairman of the SEC moves on.

“Yes, I do believe we’ll have one [A Bitcoin ETF]. No, I do not believe this is a 2020 event. I actually have said that I think there is a strong feeling and a general consensus that nothing’s going to happen until commissioner Clayton is no longer the chairman,” Moro said on the Castle Island Podcast.

It appears as much as the Bitcoin market matures it is still not good enough for the SEC and their strict conditions of what an ETF should be. If there was a change in leadership at the SEC there could well be a change in attitude towards a bitcoin ETF

“I think over time the rationale for not approving one slowly starting to go away. That’s my view, and there’s going to be a way for people to come to the terms that this isn’t going away. Bitcoin is around, and frankly, GBTC is out there. It is freely traded. Any mom and pop investors able to buy it, but in the public markets it is trading at a premium.”