Cathie Wood Hesitates to Invest in the Pro Shares ETF

Cathie Wood – the founder and CEO of Ark Invest – is acknowledging that the new bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a step in the right direction. However, she’s not jumping in headfirst. Rather, she’s choosing to take her time and observe things for a little while so that she can better understand how the ETF will work and operate prior to getting involved.

Cathie Wood Hasn’t Invested in the BTC ETF Just Yet

At a recent conference, Wood was asked if she or her company had yet invested in the Pro Shares ETF product. She responded with the following:

No, we did not. We’re looking at this very carefully. There are some tax ramifications we’d like to understand more having to do with contango versus more normal backwardation.

The bitcoin ETF is an interesting and controversial topic for many reasons. On the one hand, many people are excited and talking about it. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been very anti-crypto in recent years, going so far as to reject or delay the decision-making process for multiple applications from firms like Van Eck and Bitwise.

This new product is slated to open many doors for companies that would have otherwise had no chance when it came to garnering appropriate consideration. At the same time, however, many analysts are not happy about the fact that the product is based on bitcoin futures rather than physical bitcoin. They claim that futures are inferior products and ultimately prevent traders from enjoying full profits should the price of bitcoin ever surge.

Jeffrey Halley – the senior market analyst at Oanda – had additional thoughts as to why both Wood and Ark are waiting when it came to investing in the ETF. He stated in an interview:

Longer-dated contracts are more expensive than the front month. That means you lose money rolling expiring contracts into the new front month. They probably want to see an orderly roll with decent two-way liquidity and a shallower contango.

Bitcoin Will Still Be Strong, She Says

Wood is taking her time with this product but remains very bullish on bitcoin. Not long ago, the currency rose to the $66,000 mark, the highest it’s ever been. Ark has been involved in bitcoin trading since 2015, and Wood has claimed that bitcoin will soon be larger and more powerful than America’s most prominent banks. She stated:

This is the new bank, the digital wallet, and it’s going to be true in this country. It’s going to be true around the world.

She finished her statement by claiming that she was “all in” when it came to bitcoin. She has also stated in the past that Elon Musk – the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX – is hugely responsible for the wave of attention bitcoin has been getting as of late. Her words came at a time when Musk was criticized for allegedly manipulating the asset’s price.

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