Is a Bitcoin Futures ETF Good for Bitcoin?

Last week’s SEC approval of a bitcoin futures ETF sounds good on paper. But is it good for investors and what does it do for the Bitcoin brand?

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ABOUT

The first bitcoin-linked ETF to ever hit U.S. markets has finally arrived. But what does that mean for bitcoin as an investment? For starters, hundreds of millions of dollars in speculative bets from traders whose brokerage accounts have never tasted crypto before. But are they betting on bitcoin? Not exactly…. They’re betting on bitcoin futures contracts. And it’s not quite the same.

Karan Sood joins the “Opinionated” squad to break down crypto’s hot new investment trend. His investment company, Cboe Vest, was one of the first to wrap bitcoin futures in a traditional finance shell. It’s no wonder that he believes products linked to futures contracts are mainstream investors’ best way into crypto.

Ben, Anna and Danny don’t completely agree.

Listen to this week’s “Opinionated” for a contrarian take on the big bitcoin news.

This episode was produced, announced and edited by Michele Musso with additional production support by Adrian Blust. Our theme song is by Elision.

HOSTS

Dan Ilett

Dan Ilett writes on tech, money and energy. He advises business on digital strategy and technology messaging for large deals. He is founder of Erbut - an advisory company - and Greenbang - a smart technology research company.

Anna Baydakova

Anna writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on Eastern Europe and Russia. She is especially excited about stories on privacy, cybercrime, sanctions policies and censorship resistance of decentralized technologies.
She graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University and the Higher School of Economics in Russia and got her Master's degree at Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
She joined CoinDesk after years of writing for various Russian media, including the leading political outlet Novaya Gazeta.
Anna owns BTC and an NFT of sentimental value.

Danny Nelson

Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.

Benjamin Schiller

Benjamin Schiller is CoinDesk's managing editor for features and opinion. Previously, he was editor-in-chief at BREAKER Magazine and a staff writer at Fast Company. He holds some ETH, BTC and LINK.

Danny Bradbury

Danny Bradbury has been a professional writer since 1989, and has worked freelance since 1994. He covers technology for publications such as the Guardian.

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