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Bitcoin ETFs Have Arrived. Here’s Who Stands to Get Rich

The US approval of spot bitcoin ETFs, a new way to track the price of bitcoin, could trigger a gold rush for investors. But an exclusive cast of middlemen will earn big in the background, too.

The pool of firms that perform these trading-related functions is limited, says James Seyffart, ETF research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, partly because of the amount of cash required to deal with large quantities of assets flowing in and out the door. In August 2023, when a US judge ruled the agency had wrongfully denied an application by asset manager Grayscale to convert its bitcoin trust into a spot ETF, however, the SEC was forced to reconsider its position. The SEC has now rubber-stamped all eleven pending applications for spot bitcoin ETFs, whose operators will now jostle, says Seoyoung Kim, professor of finance at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business, to attract the most investment.

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