
You can now invest in bitcoin ETFs. But should you?
CNN
It’s official. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday gave the green light to the listing and trading of 11 bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds, or ETFs. And they will be coming online quickly, with several starting to trade Thursday.
It’s official. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday gave the green light to the listing and trading of 11 bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds, or ETFs. And they will be coming online quickly, with several starting to trade Thursday. That means if you have have been curious about investing in bitcoin, you can do so in an SEC-regulated product, with fewer of the technical and cybersecurity risks that come with investing in it directly. But before you jump on the bitcoin bandwagon, here are some things to think about. It’s important to grasp what kind of asset bitcoin is. Bitcoin is not tethered to anything tangible like the goods of a company or a natural resource. And it is not legal tender in the United States or most other countries. The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network characterizes it as “a medium of exchange that operates like a currency in some environments.”

A typical 401(k) plan only offers stock and bond funds that invest in publicly traded companies. But private companies — traditionally the domain of institutional and high-net-worth investors — have become a significant part of the overall investing market. Do they belong as an option in workplace retirement plans, given that they are often more expensive and less transparent than publicly traded securities?

President Donald Trump’s attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell are so commonplace at this point that they barely register in financial markets these days. The rapidly intensifying multi-pronged efforts by Trump’s advisers to amplify and expand on Trump’s attacks are a good reason to rethink that indifference.