The leading cryptocurrency is trading at $64,400 as this article is being written, and the latest inflation data came in relatively good. After concerns about the halt in the decline of inflation and the recent poor PPI data, April inflation decreased. On the other hand, Bitcoin surpassed gold after tens of thousands of years.
Future of Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitwise (one of the BTC ETF issuers) CIO Hougan says that many companies are interested in ETFs, alongside Hightower Advisors, the second-largest RIA firm in the US, which holds a $68 million spot Bitcoin ETF. Cambridge Investment Research, Sequoia Financial Advisors, Integrated Advisors, and Brown Advisory announced spot Bitcoin ETF purchases ranging from $4 million to $40 million.
These companies are US professional investment firms, and since spot Bitcoin ETFs are still in their early stages, their interest in the first quarter is certainly noteworthy. Most importantly, more companies may have already purchased BTC ETFs. The CIO said;
“A total of 563 professional investment firms reported holding $3.5 billion worth of bitcoin ETFs as of last Thursday. I am hopeful that by the final application deadline of May 15, we could reach over 700 professional firms and a total value approaching $5 billion.”
Bitcoin vs. Gold Comparison
For thousands, tens of thousands of years, the yellow, shiny, easily workable metal called gold has held value in the eyes of people. However, Bitcoin, although coming from far behind, is taking its place. We can’t say it has succeeded in every aspect, but we can compare it to the early stages of the Gold ETF launch in 2004.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted this issue and said;
“Also noteworthy is the number of professional investors each has so far. BlackRock‘s ETF IBIT has already surpassed 250. This is a great number for the first quarter.”
When the Gold ETF was launched in 2004, there was a $1 billion inflow in the first 5 days, and in the first 13F filing, 95 professional firms declared holding Gold ETFs. Therefore, spot Bitcoin ETFs have already surpassed Gold.