Brian Kelly Believes Bitcoin ETF Will Be Approved By February 2019

Cryptocurrency expert Brian Kelly stated he believes that a Bitcoin ETF will be approved by February 2019. Dozens of Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds have undergone review but all have been denied so far by the SEC.

Brian Kelly Makes Bold Call On Bitcoin ETF

According to Brian Kelly, the SEC will be approving a Bitcoin ETF by February 2019. He talked about that during an interview on CNBC’s Fast Money on August 23.

These comments are important because the SEC had just rejected nine BTC ETF proposals on August 22. An ETF could have a very big impact on the market. Institutional investors see too much volatility, risk, and manipulation to trust the current cryptocurrency market. With an ETF, a more formal and traditional financial instrument, wealthy investors could place their funds in the market.

ETFs track the value of an underlying asset, in this case, Bitcoin or another virtual currency. Moreover, ETFs require the oversight of governmental authorities in order to operate.

The SEC explained that one of the reasons why it decided to delay the approval of the ETF was due to the fact that the crypto market was being manipulated. One of these situations is related to Tether (USDT) and the influence it had on Bitcoin’s price during bear markets.

Kelly commented on the matter:

“[When] the SEC talked about fraud and manipulation, it wasn’t so much about preventing it, but how do they surveil it? Do they have an arrangement with other [globally or nationally regulated] exchanges [that would enable them to] surveil what’s going on?”

After it, he affirmed that Bitcoin futures markets – operated by the CBOE and CME – are going to ‘have a much better shot’ by 2019. Furthermore, Kelly explained that the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and its recently unveiled Bakkt platform, would increase crypto spot and derivatives markets. That means that the SEC will be taking it into account and approve the Bitcoin ETF.

“Here’s CME Futures open interest of large holders. [As of] April, you’re starting to see a big increase… about an 85 percent growth rate,” said Mr. Kelly. “If you extrapolate that out, by February 2019, you’re going to have a very robust market here.”