Bitcoin misses out on ‘$50k’ price spike with ETF uncertainty | City & Business | Financ…

With bitcoin recovering from it’s recent low point of $5785 to a high this week of $8,430, crypto traders around the world were optimistic for a positive outcome over the approval of a much-hyped ETF that would mark the biggest step yet for digital assets moving into the centre-ground of mainstream finance.

A bitcoin ETF (exchange traded fund) would allow people to buy into bitcoin without having to deal with online exchanges that suffer from credibility issues and lack of regulation.

In short, unlike a currency stored in an online wallet, an ETF is an investment fund which holds stocks, bonds, commodities or any basket of assets and traded on stock exchanges.

If an ETF was approved by the SEC, the successful applicant – for example the CBOE – would need to hold cryptocurrencies as collateral and also offer greater levels of transparency with investors’ holding protected against hacking and theft.

Matthew Newton, market analyst at eToro, explains: “Custody has emerged as one of…