Bitcoin ETFs trading surges despite SEC chair’s warning: ‘Speculative, volatile asset’
NY Post
Trading volume on newly approved spot Bitcoin ETFs soared past $5 billion Friday in the second full day since launch — even as SEC Chairman Gary Gensler warned investors to think twice before pouring money into the crypto product.
After years of wrangling over their legality, the SEC approved 11 of the exchange-traded funds this week, including products offered by investment giants Blackrock, Fidelity and Grayscale.
The approvals were seen as a major win for crypto touts who wanted to open the asset to a wider pool of investors.
By buying into the ETFs, investors are acquiring stakes in funds that own bitcoin, rather than buying the tokens themselves.
Gensler indicated he remains highly skeptical of cryptocurrencies during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday.
“Investors should be aware that the underlying asset is a highly speculative, volatile asset,” Gensler said. “Amongst its use cases is really for illicit activity – money laundering and sanctions and ransomware and the like.”
The killing of Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday in an unprecedented joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury set off widespread celebrations from Iranians around the world — as President Trump said it would give them their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.” Meanwhile, in Iran, a lack of internet has made it impossible for Iranians to easily communicate daily conditions. Over a period of three days, with limited VPN connection, an eyewitness currently in Tehran — who, for her safety, is concealing her identity — shared her account of life under a country in the midst of battle with The Post’s Natasha Pearlman.
After exactly 120 years, the curtain has fallen on the Theater District institution Barbetta, with the iconic Italian restaurant having served its final course Friday night.