Demand for bitcoin ETFs is surging as the ‘Wild West‘ meets the Wall

<p>This week, Wall Street opened its doors to the crypto industry, as the first US exchange-traded bitcoin fund raised more than $1 billion in capital and pushed the prices of the world's largest digital currencies to new highs.</p> <p>Similar instruments currently trade in other markets, but the debut of a crypto ETF on the world's largest stock exchange marks a huge milestone for crypto proponents after eight years of lobbying regulators.</p> <p>For the first time, institutional investors can now include a bitcoin-linked instrument listed on the New York Stock Exchange alongside traditional financial assets such as stocks and bonds.</p> <p>"This is the quickest ETF to reach $1 billion in assets... This is unparalleled in terms of asset growth and trading volume and reflects pent-up demand," said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA.</p> <p>The successful debut of the bitcoin ETF demonstrates how traditional financial institutions are vying for a piece of the digital asset business. It also demonstrates the rising recognition among many financial watchdogs that the sector has grown too huge and is growing too quickly to ignore.</p> <p>Retail investors accounted for approximately 12-15 percent of nett buying in the ProShares ETF during the first two days of trading, indicating strong institutional interest, according to JPMorgan data. Three days after the ProShares product started, another comparable vehicle sponsored by Valkyrie Funds emerged on Friday, in a move analysts believe to be copied numerous times.</p> <p>Additional headlines this week, including a record-breaking funding round by crypto exchange FTX backed by a slew of high-profile investors, have fueled the frenzy surrounding digital assets.</p> <p>These evidence of growing interest, combined with an increase in professional traders utilising cryptocurrency as a platform for sophisticated market wagers, helped boost bitcoin beyond $66,000 for the first time on Wednesday, before reversing course to around $61,000 by Fri