The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved eleven bitcoin ETFs after the market closed on Wednesday. Coinbase (COIN) will act as custodian for the majority of approved issuers.
Coinbase CFO Alicia Haas told Yahoo Finance’s Sheena Smith that it was a “historic day for crypto,” but that “this is a long journey and this is just one step along the way,” in an effort to gain widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies.
So, what is Coinbase doing to ensure that investors’ investments are safe? Coinbase has “a long history of securely storing assets for our retail and institutional clients,” Haas says. Haas explains that the company has a “qualified custodian…which means we will be the primary custodian of the Bitcoin” for many of the ETFs that have been approved. As part of its offerings, Haas says the company offers security, including cybersecurity.
Haas believes that immediate approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund “will invite trillions of dollars that previously did not have access to crypto assets and were not able to access Bitcoin” to access the asset class.
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Editor’s Note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulic