Author

Topic: 2013-07-03 Business Week - Winklevoss Twins Confront Skeptics to SEC on Bitcoin' (Read 809 times)

legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1010
Quote
“We recognized that there was not an easy way to gain Bitcoin exposure, so we’re trying to creating a simple solution,” Tyler Winklevoss said in an e-mailed statement.

That's the whole deal, pure and simple.  They are aware that the effort to buy and hold bitcoins today is much too difficult, and could be simplified.  An ETF does that.

Also, they might have added ... if the U.S. banking system didn't suck so bad (high bank wire fees, slow transfer, anti-fraud holds, bank holidays, etc.) then there would be less of a reason for this ETF to exist.   But it is what it is, so there is room for an ETF.
sr. member
Activity: 453
Merit: 250
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-03/winklevosses-confront-real-challenge-on-etp-for-virtual-bitcoin

This one actually has some solid facts and first hand quotes.
As we like to say on the forum: Shows signs of actual journalism.

Quote
Most ETPs in the U.S. are structured as funds under the 1940 Investment Company Act. The proposed product would be established as a grantor trust because it wouldn’t qualify as a fund, Kathleen H. Moriarty, a partner at Chicago-based law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP who helped prepare the registration statement, said in an interview.

“It can’t be a 1940 Act product because it would have to hold securities, and we think Bitcoins are not securities,” Moriarty said.

The $38.8 billion SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), which holds bars of gold bullion in a London vault, is structured as a grantor trust. Its shares, representing fractional claims on the physical gold, trade on the NYSE Arca exchange.

‘Unique Asset’
“I think there’s a precedent for it in precious metals products, but this is a unique asset,” Moriarty said. “There necessarily will be novel questions that need to be asked.”

Those questions will include whether the product is operationally sound, whether it can be hedged and whether market makers can make a “fair and orderly market,” said Adam Patti, chief executive officer and founder of IndexIQ Inc., a New York-based sponsor of ETFs that focus on alternative-investment strategies.
Jump to: