While I do agree that an ETF will help with hedging investments in bitcoin, it doesn't make the price more stable which is necessary for widespread adoption and a subsequent increase in the value. People on wallstreet are not going to invest in bitcoin just because it is packaged as an ETF. For them it would be tantamount to investing in penny stocks since the ETF itself doesnt bulster the underlying value of bitcoin and there is no metric for how bitcoin should be valued.
What? There is no metric for how any commodity should be valued. What is the metric for the correct price of gold?
Yeah no shit, but its bitcoin. Not gold. Gold is valued by a historical and global consensus. If you go anywhere in the world they will know and accept gold. The same can't be said about bitcoin. There's no reason to invest in bitcoin over gold for a normal investor. For bitcoin to gain the same notoriety that gold has, it has to be used by people first; in the way that gold was primarily used as medium of exchange and not solely a store of value as it is today. To package bitcoin as an ETF is premature because it misses the necessary steps for bitcoin adoption and development. People need to interact with bitcoin in person first not through a trading mechanism.
The "normal" investor has a much wider range of options to invest in and it's clear that they're looking for alternatives. Look at the VIX for example, the average investor can speculate on volatility. Something doesn't have to be tangible or have a long standing history in order for it to be investable by the masses.
yeah precisely investors have a wide range of options to invest, which is why they wouldn't put there money into bitcoin. honestly i am bitcoin enthusiast and I think that crypto currencies can actually change the global economy as we know it, but if i were a portfolio manager i wouldnt put money into bitcoin even if i were looking for alternative investments. there are so many other things you can invest in. in this stage we shouldnt be thinking of crypto currencies as investments we should be thinking of them as currencies that is where there inherent value comes from, its derived from the fact that they can and will progressively improve as mediums of exchange, transcendent modern banking systems.