The path to approval for the first bitcoin exchange-traded funds (etfs) was long and arduous. Applications appeared before regulators in 2013, when the price of a bitcoin was just shy of $100 and nobody had heard of Sam Bankman-Fried or the phrase “to the Moon”. After a decade of rejection, promoters finally succeeded on January 10th, when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 applications for ETFs that track the spot price of bitcoin, which was at the time above $46,000.
