ICE’s Bitcoin [BTC] exchange is going to “pave the way for Bitcoin ETF”, says Brian Kelly

During an interview with CNBC Fast Money, Brian Kelly, the Founder, and CEO of BKCM LLC said that the Bekkt, a start-up exchange platform started by Intercontinental Exchange [ICE], would pave the way for a Bitcoin [BTC] ETF. Brian also stated that this is the “biggest news of the year” and the “market is completely underappreciated”.

Kelly stated that the Winklevoss ETF got rejected because there weren’t any U.S regulated exchange or any U.S regulated custody at play. Whereas the proposal of ICE, who is responsible for the New York Stock Exchange, would “pave the way for Bitcoin ETF” as it would lead to the U.S regulated exchanging trading Bitcoin. and have a licensed warehouse to store commodities. This, in turn, would make it easier to get a Bitcoin ETF approved.

He further states that the new Bitcoin exchange company is the best thing that has happened since Bitcoin Futures. This is because the problem with Bitcoin Futures is that it is limited to a set of people . Moreover, a majority of the people use it for hedging against risk through a diversified portfolio.

Reportedly, the NYSE exchange platform is talking about getting into 401K, intro-funds, and fidelity or TD Ameritrade accounts. Customers can buy Bitcoin ETFs and Bitcoin mutual funds using pre-existing infrastructure, says Kelly. This also, according to Brian, expands the cryptocurrency universe and was what the cryptocurrency market was missing.

Brian firmly believes in Bekkt, as the team has been working on a “stealth mode” for the past 14 months. Reportedly, they have already spoken to the regulators and are ready to launch a full scale regulated exchange by November 2018. Moreover, if this was broken in the month of January the Bitcoin price would have popped by 20%, said Kelly.

He quoted his reasons for saying growth in price has been slow due to the bear market breaking the investors’ spirits. Moreover, a lot of people are still unaware of the news due to the majority of the Bitcoin market being in Asia. As the news usually reaches Asian countries later on, Brian stated that there could be a pump in the price when Asia wakes up.

He further speaks about the Starbucks collaboration, said:

“Starbucks is going to allow you to take your crypto and effectively load a US Dollar card with this. We don’t have a problem with our payment in the U.S… This is more of a move forward. If you look at Starbucks history, they are really at the forefront of digital payments particularly the retail space. So to have them involved is more of a signal that this is becoming more of a mainstream”

Chad Arnold, a Twitterati said:

“Spot on. There is far more to this announcement than coffee. Future is bright. Digital assets are here to stay.”