Jan 10, 2024 - The U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday approved the first U.S.-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) to track bitcoin, in a watershed for the world's largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it approved 11 applications, including BlackRock (BLK.N), Ark Investments/21Shares (ABTC.S), Fidelity, Invesco (IVZ.N) and VanEck, despite warnings from some officials and investor advocates that the products carried risks.

Most of the products are expected to begin trading Thursday, issuers said, kicking off a fierce competition for market share.

A decade in the making, the ETFs are a game-changer for bitcoin, offering investors exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency without directly holding it. They provide a major boost for a crypto industry beset by scandals.

"It's a huge positive for the institutionalization of bitcoin as an asset class," said Andrew Bond, managing director and senior fintech analyst at Rosenblatt Securities.

Standard Chartered analysts this week said, the ETFs could draw $50 billion to $100 billion this year alone. Other analysts have said inflows will be closer to $55 billion over five years.

The market capitalization of bitcoin stood at more than $913 billion as of Wednesday, according to CoinGecko. As of December 2022, total net assets of U.S. ETFs stood at $6.5 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

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