Setting the stage for a bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) has been quite a long-drawn prospect, but one finance manager is confident that it will happen soon.

At the sidelines of the recent ETF Conference in California, Edelman Financial Engines founder Ric Edelman bared to CNBC’s “ETF Edge” that the concept of a bitcoin ETF “is virtually certain. The only question is when.”

Edelman noted that the Securities and Exchange Commission is greatly concerned about certain issues that they need to hurdle for the bitcoin ETF to take effect, adding that:

“Eventually we will see a bitcoin ETF and it’s at that stage that I will be much more comfortable recommending that ordinary investors participate.”

Media hype

The hype surrounding the much-anticipated bitcoin ETF has been high during the past weeks with traders bracing for its impact.

For instance, CBOE – one of the largest exchange holding companies in the world – backed out of its ETF proposal because of government shutdown. Then a few days after that, it filed for reapplication with the SEC, with most crypto players not even taking notice.

Regulating the digital currency market has been one of the biggest challenges that the SEC had to deal with in the past years. For one, crypto trading does not have a stable chain of security measures compared to other financial markets.

And secondly, the regulatory body is not well-equipped in terms of exercising full control over price exploitation considering its limitations in controlling overseas trading systems.

Not until late this year

Now, with proposals being subject to a 240-day deadline; and considering SEC’s propensity to capitalize on this deadline, many people in the bitcoin community think that an ETF will not materialize until the later part of the year.

Edelman believes that key finance players’ interest in finding a way for applications to be approved indicates just how important having a bitcoin ETF is, to which Tom Lydon, ETFTrends.com chief editor, agrees to:

“There is pent-up demand. We interview advisors all the time. Seventy-four percent say they’ve talked to clients about their interests in bitcoin so they need to step up when this happens because that money is going to go elsewhere.”

Meanwhile, a recent survey conducted by CNBC, as shown above, bared that 70 percent of respondents said they are willing to invest in a bitcoin ETF.

(Jet Encila is a freelance writer, editor and journalist from the Philippines)

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