By Chris FurlongIn the world of cryptocurrencies, one of the most fascinating markets is the UK bitcoin ETF.
Launched by the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, the fund has been on the books of the British government since the summer.
It is the first ever bitcoin ETF and it is designed to provide the public with a transparent, transparent, secure and fair price.
Its a bit like a hedge fund for bitcoin.
Unlike the likes of bitcoin’s main rivals, bitcoin has become so valuable that it has been worth more than US$2.5 trillion, or around $1,300bn, in value, according to data compiled by CoinDesk.
The value of bitcoin is so big that it is now trading at around $400,000 a coin.
If that figure holds, it is the biggest ever in history.
The market for bitcoin has been in a state of flux for quite some time.
The cryptocurrency has been a flash crash in the summer of 2017 and was then driven into a tailspin by the hack that resulted in the loss of around 4,000 bitcoins.
Then, in early 2018, the price of a bitcoin went into free fall, and the currency’s value has been at least partly driven down by speculation and hype.
The price of bitcoin peaked at around £400, and then fell to around $330 in mid-September, when the Brexit vote kicked in and the dollar lost value.
Then in early October, bitcoin’s value started rising again, and it was only after the Brexit decision that the currency had regained some of its lost ground.
So far, so good.
But now things are looking up for bitcoin, according the fund’s co-founder, Richard Taylor.
“We’ve been getting a lot of interest from institutional investors and individuals wanting to put their money in bitcoin, but not quite at the same price as before the Brexit,” he said.
“The bitcoin market has been quite volatile.
I think the bitcoin ETF is going to help the market to stay stable, and to provide a price which is competitive with traditional ETFs, like the SPDR Gold Trust or the CME Group Gold Trust.”
It will provide a real-time, low-cost, real-world value for investors.
“That said, there are still a few hurdles to overcome.
The first is that the fund is not yet public.
Its been set up in a trust overseen by BlackRock.
Its now up to the public to invest in the fund.
So far this year, about 50,000 investors have invested in the bitcoin fund.
This year, Taylor said, he expects the fund to reach about a million investors.
But the first order of business is to get the fund approved by the Government.
That is where the fund needs to convince the UK Parliament that it should be allowed to operate.
It currently has a legal status of “investment adviser”, which allows it to sell its bitcoin holdings and sell shares in the company.
According to the UK government, investment advisers do not have to be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
This means that they can be offered the same opportunities as retail investors in the private sector.
However, the Government says that there are many factors that affect the status of investment advisers.
The Government wants the fund “to operate in a way which allows its owners to trade bitcoin and other assets and to make money from the investment, without being subjected to any restriction,” it said in a statement.
In a statement, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it was currently looking at a “wholly revised” regulation to allow investment advisers to trade in bitcoin.”
We are therefore in the process of drafting the new regulation which will be published on the ONS website in the autumn,” the agency said.
Taylor said the fund could be a good way to start.
He said the UK was “in the middle of a new economic boom”, and that the value of bitcoins was “going up”.”
This is the sort of thing that we need in the UK to keep our economy going,” he added.
As a hedge, the ETF could act as a hedge against any rise in bitcoin prices, or against any devaluation of the currency.
If the fund were to sell, Taylor would expect to make a profit on it.
For example, if the price rose to $400 a coin, the funds profits would be a net gain of $50,000, and its the equivalent of buying a $50bn stock for $60,000.
But he also said that the potential upside of the fund was also attractive.”
There are lots of different things that the ETF is able to do that we can’t do.
It’s one of those things that really excites me because I think it could provide a really strong foundation for bitcoin,” he explained.
A bitcoin ETF, he said, could help