Bivu Das, Managing Director of Kraken UK, expressed strong support for the use of Bitcoin ETFs in the UK. Bitcoin ETFs should “absolutely” be available in the UK, Das said during an interview at the Digital Asset Summit in London.
Das said the global environment has improved significantly since the UK restricted such products in 2021. The manager believes that regulators' concerns about protecting retail investors are somewhat alleviated if investors do not own the underlying asset, which in this case is Bitcoin.
According to Das, Bitcoin ETFs are an interesting product with significant return potential. However, Das notes that investors in the UK are currently unable to access these products. This lack of access potentially drives investors to unregulated venues for exposure to these products, which Das describes as not an ideal situation for the UK:
“The UK has always said it wants to be a crypto hub. And ETFs are one of the key bases to potentially meet that definition.”
While the UK has recently approved the launch of cryptocurrency ETNs, these are only available to institutional investors, unlike Bitcoin ETFs, which are available to all investors in the US.
*This is not investment advice.