Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins best known for their role in the history of Facebook, have had their fair share of headlines this week. The reason, of course, is their plan to come to market with an exchange-traded product giving investors exposure to Bitcoin, a virtual currency that exists outside the realms of governments and central banks. They filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a public listing of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust with a proposed valuation of $20m.Tyler Winklevoss discussed the trust, its target market and potential future projects with Financial News.
Financial News: Who is your target market? Who will buy this type of exchange-traded fund and why?
Tyler Winklevoss: Anyone who can’t get exposure to Bitcoin — such as pension funds —- or anyone who doesn’t want to go through the hassle of buying or physically storing it, such as mainstream retail investors. The best metaphor is to compare it to gold. How many people actually directly buy and hold gold bars? The gold ETCs [exchange-traded commodities] made it possible for investors to do that indirectly.
FN: Will the SEC approve this and when?
TW: It’s the first-ever digital math-based asset ETP [exchange-traded product], so it represents a whole new frontier. We haven’t talked with the SEC yet, but we think that, in this situation, they are likely to have more questions than they might for something that’s been done before.
