Kevin O’Leary saw no advantage in BTC ETF over bitcoin itself

At the same time, the businessman recognizes the positive consequences of their approval in the United States for the cryptocurrency industry

15.01.2024 - 08:20

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2 min

What’s new? Kevin O’Leary, the star of the TV show Shark Tank and chairman of O’Shares ETFs, said he would never buy shares of bitcoin based spot exchange-traded funds because he already invests in the asset directly and prefers not to pay management fees. He noted that he views BTC as digital gold and intends to hold it for the long term, while ETFs have additional costs and do not add value.

Material by Fox Business

What else is known? At the same time, O’Leary was extremely positive about the implications of the approval of spot BTC ETFs in the United States for the crypto industry, as it has the potential to “re-energise Congress” on the issue of creating a regulatory framework for dollar-based payment stablecoins, such as USDC from issuer Circle.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 funds from 13 investment firms, including Grayscale (ticker GBTC), Bitwise (BITB), Hashdex (DEFI), BlackRock (IBIT), Valkyrie (BRRR), VanEck (HODL), Wisdom Tree (BTCW), Fidelity (FBTC), Franklin Templeton (EZBC), ARK Invest and 21 Shares (ARKB) and Invesco and Galaxy (BTCO).

On the first day, trading volume in fund shares exceeded $4,5 billion, with nearly half coming from Grayscale product. The total inflow amounted to $720 million, and the leader in this indicator was BITB from Bitwise. The company pledged to allocate 10% of ETF profits to bitcoin developers over the next ten years.

At the same time, O’Leary believes that in the long term, some of these funds will close. According to the businessman, Fidelity and BlackRock will take the leading positions in the market due to their scale.

Earlier, O’Leary expressed confidence that the SEC in its current composition will not allow spot BTC ETFs on the market due to the lack of a clear regulatory framework. Later, SEC head Gary Gensler emphasized in a press release on the occasion of the launch of bitcoin funds that the Commission still does not support the asset and considers it high-risk.

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