The Winklevoss brothers are recognized Bitcoin millionaires, as they own at least 10 million dollars in form of the currency. The sum corresponds to the minimum of 1% of the already emitted units and might carry a higher value due to the forecasted increase of the price of the BTC during the 2014. The reason for success is the ability to foresee the market, to act right on time due to a natural developed or begotten feel. While the twins plan to establish a new branch of their business, other less gifted players of the market are willing to use them as a barometer of the cryptocurrency environment.
Current plan is to create an exchange-traded fund investing in the digital coin. The exchange-traded funds are also known as ETFs and are traded on stock exchanges. Traditionally they are assets as stocks, commodities or bonds, sometimes include stock or bond indexes. The reasons of their leading popularity are low costs, tax efficiency and stock-like features. Such advantages could not have been overseen by the Winklevoss siblings, especially, in combination with the gaining momentum alternative currency.
The lawyer working on the plan and its implementation has recently stated that the sketch might receive some alterations as the regulators advice to revise the existing plan. The first edition was introduced to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the 1st of July. Kathleen H. Moriarty, from the Chicago-based law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, supervising the formalization of the idea has given an interview on the 28th of January in Hollywood, where she stated that the new version will be given in after two weeks.
Although the Winklevoss twins claim that Mark Zuckerberg succeeded to steal their idea of a social network and to create it on his own, they try to engage in different types of business. As 1,500 ETFs in the U.S. manage about $1.7 trillion, the idea seems very attractive to be seriously considered. To engage in this kind of trade brokers have to be authorized, receive the required license. The process is rather complicated, might feature several resubmissions of the prepared application with changes and corrections.
Still, Moriarty describes the current work on the topic as “progressing nicely” and the results “might occur at the end of 2014”. Experts see an interesting tendency in this claim – the current events, including the arrest of Charlie Shrem and several warnings from Central Banks and governments of different countires aiming to protect the society from virtual currencies and risks associated with them, did not harm the environment of the Bitcoin. The biggest shock relived by the coin was in 2013, when the People’s Republic of China indirectly prohibited the digital coin. The drop of the price had a short-term character, while recent happenings added attractiveness to the startups with virtual money.
Seeing the situation form a different perspective one might draw the conclusion - the noses of the two biggest sharks seem not to deceive. What will be left to smaller fishes in the Altcoin Ocean?