Bitwise CEO Predicts 'Many' Wealth Management Firms Will Offer BTC ETFs By Year-End

The CEO of Bitwise Investments, the world's largest cryptocurrency index fund manager, is joining the long list of Bitcoin bulls who believe spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will only grow in the coming months and gain more issuers by the end of the year.

"By the end of 2024, people are going to be stunned by how many wealth management firms own a Bitcoin ETF," Hunter Horsley wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. He went on to explain that the reason for such a development is due to the gradual opening-up of some financial institutions to Bitcoin. "They're smart, many extremely well informed, and increasingly share conviction on Bitcoin. Oh, and they're long only," he pointed out.

"Going to be an amazing new constituent in the Bitcoin space," he concluded.

"Anecdotally, my friends in the space unanimously think its vaporware," said one commenter on Horsley's post. The tech executive responded, saying there will be a host of people dismissing Bitcoin ETF adoption until half of the companies "they admire are doing it."

Other X users agreed with Horsley's prediction, with one commenter saying everyone in the financial realm can be quite vocal when they criticize the world's first decentralized digital asset, but "silent when they place it on their balance sheet."

One user had an interesting take on Bitcoin ETFs, saying he is waiting for BTC ETFs to be offered through corporate benefits plans, as he believes it will "blow the lid off demand."

There were a few naysayers who disagreed with Horsley and other Bitcoin enthusiasts on the thread. One user said people will be "stunned by the precipitous drop of Bitcoin" at the end of the year because institutional observers will soon realize that there aren't enough buyers to sustain the digital currency's upswing.

The prediction was made one day after Bitcoin went through its fourth halving, wherein the mining rewards are cut in half, effectively reducing the rate at which new BTC are released into the hungry market. The coin's price stubbornly stuck to around $63,000 and $64,000 during the event.

Enthusiasm around Bitcoin ETFs among crypto analysts and experts has been largely consistent even amid news that some of the largest spot BTC ETF issuers such as asset management giant Grayscale saw significant outflows since their approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January.

Horsley isn't the first to make a prediction related to BTC products, as MicroStrategy founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor said last month that traditional banks will eventually be forced to offer Bitcoin custody services. As larger clients demand such offerings, banks that used to doubt the potential of cryptocurrencies may jump on the bandwagon in the future, he predicted.