Quote from: pleaseexplain on May 06, 2015, 12:57:10 AM

with all this messy way this quazi etf works why is not the following also possible until (if ever) COIN arrives.

I set up a company in a country (X) that sees bitcoin as a commodity. I buy 20,000 bitcoin. I then set up a company in the US for example which buys company x. The US company has 1 million shares. People are able to buy the shares and sell them to others as well.

I make some money on fees and an etf like product is immediately available to people - no year long wait etc.

Comments?

You don't need that complication. The Fortress Investment Group (a huge investment fund) and Overstock are traded in the open market, and at one time both owned some raw bitcoins. (Overstock still does, Fortress may have unloaded them in early 2014.)

So, when you bought shares of those companies, you became owner of some bitcoins. (And maybe in a much stricter sense than when you buy BIT shares, because the latter may not really give you ownership of a slice of Grayscale.)

The catch is that (AFAIK) the SEC will require the company to post quarterly and annual reports on their finances, and the company needs the SEC's permission to list its shares on NYSE or NASDAQ. If the assets of the company are entirely bitcoins, the company would have no revenue, just expenses, and would look no better than COIN; therefore, it would probably be in the same limbo as COIN, waiting for the SEC's decision...