PERSONAL FINANCE
SIMON BROWN: Bitcoin, or a bitcoin ETF?
Now that US regulators have given their blessing to 11 bitcoin ETFs, we look at whether it’s time (finally) to get in on crypto’s oldest act
In January the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the listing of 11 bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) after years of denying applications. All 11 started trading the following day and all sorts of questions are now being asked.
The first is: why buy the ETF when you could already buy any multitude of crypto from any one of the hundreds of crypto exchanges? Here, security may be the reason. Exchanges being hacked, and instances of fraud or even just losing your coins are not uncommon (this is why I have always said hold your crypto in a hardware wallet). The bigger question is whether the ETF providers will offer any better security. Certainly they have reputations to worry about and tons of legislation, and the SEC has put many guardrails in place to enhance oversight and investor protection. ..
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