Giovanni Vicioso, head of crypto at CME Group, recently spoke about the impact of Bitcoin ETFs on the crypto industry.
According to Vicioso, these ETFs have not only legitimized the industry in the eyes of Wall Street, but have also forced major distribution networks and marketing firms to promote Bitcoin to their customers.
Vicioso explained that the role of investment advisors has evolved into educating their client base on the importance of Bitcoin. They now have a familiar product, Bitcoin ETFs, to facilitate this process.
Previously, conversations with customers about Bitcoin revolved around basic questions such as what Bitcoin is, why they should consider cryptocurrencies, and whether the coins are being used for illegal purposes. However, according to Vicioso, since the launch of ETFs, discussions have shifted towards Bitcoin’s uses.
The discussions are not limited to Bitcoin. Ethereum and its opportunities such as smart contract technology and tokenization, DeFi and web3 are also regularly brought to the agenda. Bitcoin and Ethereum are “really huge, too big to ignore,” Vicioso said.
As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers approving a series of Ethereum spot ETFs in May, Vicioso said his firm’s data holds clues about how traders see the market evolving. He pointed to reference rates of CME and real-time indices for 20 other cryptocurrencies, which include prices of projects such as Uniswap, Polygon, Cosmos and Solana
These coins, chosen by CME for their potential use cases, may be good candidates for ETFs in the future:
- Aave (AAVE)
- Algorand (ALGO)
- Avalanche (AVAX)
- Axie Infinity (AXS)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Chainlink (LINK)
- Chiliz (CHZ)
- Cosmos (ATOM)
- Curve (CRV)
- Decentraland (MANA)
- Ether (ETH)
- Ether Euro (ETH)
- Filecoin (FIL)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Polygon (MATIC)
- Solana (SOL)
- Stellar Lumens (XLM)
- Synthetix (SNX)
- Tezos (XTZ)
- Uniswap (UNI)
However, Vicioso noted that the launch of additional futures contracts, or ETFs, for these coins will depend on greater regulatory clarity, particularly on whether these cryptocurrencies will be considered commodities or securities.
*This is not investment advice.