Arkivbild. (© Stephen Lam / Reuters / TT NYHETSBYRÅN)

Bitcoinkursen har trotsat kollapsen i Kina

Handeln med kryptovalutan bitcoin genomgår en turbulent fas. För en vecka sedan steg priset på en bitcoin förbi priset på ett uns guld för första gången när valutan handlades för 1 292 dollar, skriver Bloomberg.

Under våren har uppgången trotsat en kraftigt inbromsad handel på den kinesiska marknaden, skriver DI. Kinas andel av den globala omsättningen har minskat från 98 procent till under 10 procent efter en rad åtgärder från landets myndigheter.

Det finns flera förklaringar till varför bitconlyftet fortsatt, menar Arthur Hayes som är vd för plattformen Bitmex. En är att bitcoin, likt guld, blivit en ”safe haven” i oroliga tider. En annan är att USA:s finansinspektion under fredagen kan godkänna att bitcoin får handlas som en så kallad ETF eller börshandlad fond, vilket skulle öppna för ett stort kapitalinflöde.

– Jag ger det 25 procent chans att de gör tummen upp, säger Hayes till DI.

bakgrund
 
Börshandlad fond (exchange-traded fund)
Wikipedia (en)
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds, and trades close to its net asset value over the course of the trading day. Most ETFs track an index, such as a stock index or bond index. ETFs may be attractive as investments because of their low costs, tax efficiency, and stock-like features. By 2013, ETFs were the most popular type of exchange-traded product. ETF distributors only buy or sell ETFs directly from or to authorized participants, which are large broker-dealers with whom they have entered into agreements—and then, only in creation units, which are large blocks of tens of thousands of ETF shares, usually exchanged in-kind with baskets of the underlying securities. Authorized participants may wish to invest in the ETF shares for the long-term, but they usually act as market makers on the open market, using their ability to exchange creation units with their underlying securities to provide liquidity of the ETF shares and help ensure that their intraday market price approximates the net asset value of the underlying assets. Other investors, such as individuals using a retail broker, trade ETF shares on this secondary market. An ETF combines the valuation feature of a mutual fund or unit investment trust, which can be bought or sold at the end of each trading day for its net asset value, with the tradability feature of a closed-end fund, which trades throughout the trading day at prices that may be more or less than its net asset value. Closed-end funds are not considered to be ETFs, even though they are funds and are traded on an exchange. ETFs have been available in the US since 1993 and in Europe since 1999. ETFs traditionally have been index funds, but in 2008 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began to authorize the creation of actively managed ETFs. ETFs offer both tax efficiency and lower transaction costs. More than US$2 trillion were invested in ETFs in the United States between when they were introduced in 1993 and 2015. By the end of 2015, ETFs offered "1,800 different products, covering almost every conceivable market sector, niche and trading strategy".
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