Just going to leave this here, discuss as you will.
The SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) was the first US-traded gold ETF, and it amassed more than $1 billion in assets in its first three days, starting November 18, 2004, which sealed its place in history as the fastest an ETF has ever attracted that level of assets.
Another tidbit of info:
Gold market cap before etf around 1 trillion.
Gold market cap in 2021 - 11 trillion.
In isolation, these numbers don’t really mean anything, but I thought I’d throw it out there too.
But why own a Bitcoin ETF when one may simply purchase Bitcoin? Precious metals have a delivery and storage issue. Crypto does not. Why pay a management fee to Blackrock/State Street when one can own Bitcoin with a few clicks? I guess that there's a positive marketing issue to the NPCs to having an ETF, but will an ETF truly prosper? Just being devil's advocate?
No capital gains taxes, will be a huge motivator for many people. I’m not sure how your accounts work where you live, but an etf can be held in a registered account in Canada and withdrawn at any point without paying a capital gains tax.
I’m not saying it’s smart, or that it’s better than holding your own keys, but it will be a huge reason people will choose to hold an etf.
I'm not sure if the USA has capital gains taxes for crypto purchases yet - not that the government would exempt it, but I'm not sure that the leaden feet of the legislature have caught up with crypto yet and whether it's an "asset" (like a security) or a "currency" (like "yen"). AFAIK, USA doesn't tax gains in currencies - I've been abroad many times and never felt that I needed to declare my pitifully small currency exchanges to the government.
