The director of Digital Asset Strategy at the New York-based investment management firm VanEck, Gabor Gurbacs, has now made some waves with comments regarding a potential Bitcoin exchange-traded fund – a so-called ETF.

More specifically, Gurbacs has proposed that a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund could facilitate billions of dollars in cryptocurrency investments. Moreover, he also argued that the SEC should recognize pending proposals as tools to regulate the cryptocurrency market.

VanEck ”VERY close” to an ETF?

These comments came during an interview on CNBC Africa’s ”Crypto Trader” segment, during which Gurbacs shared VanEck’s internal ETF projections. Furthermore, the part of the segment relating to VanEck is titled ”VanEck – VERY close to an ETF!”.

This comes as VanEck has long been trying to persuade the SEC to approve its application for a Bitcoin ETF. VanEck has also continuously been tweaking its application for a Bitcoin ETF in order to address SEC concerns.

The general sentiment is that any approved ETF could facilitate an influx of institutional capital to the cryptocurrency sector. Moreover, the first cryptocurrency ETF to be green-lit will likely pave the way for both regulations and future ETFs.

According to Gurbacs, VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF will supposedly protect the interests of consumers. It will also reportedly put a focus on general benefits related to trading virtual currencies.

”What sets our ETF apart is that it’s a physical bitcoin ETF. So, it stays true to the bitcoin you own in underlying,” Gurbacs noted. ”It’s fully insured so if there is any theft, hacks or losses, then the insurance covers it.”

In addition to this, VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF will reportedly prevent price manipulation.

Gurbacs explained that ”the pricing which we use for bitcoin comes from our indexing subsidiary. It is a regulated entity which provided the first financial standard and regulated indices. The ETF is institutional-oriented, so we have a cap of 25 Bitcoins per basket.”

Bitcoin ETF could attract billions from institutional investors

Moreover, Gurbacs also forecasted that a Bitcoin ETF, if approved, would be similar in performance to a gold-backed ETF. ETFs are particularly attractive to institutional investors due to facilitating investments without the need for spot markets.

As such, a cryptocurrency ETF could theoretically attract just as much, if not more, investments than gold ETFs.

”Our gold ETFs are already in a few billion dollars range,” Gurbacs noted in the interview. There are gold ETFs in the $10 billion range as well. I wouldns’t be surprised if a bitcoin ETF gets in a few billion dollars range.”

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