Published on January 08, 2024 18:26 GMT+00:00edited on January 08, 2024 18:31 GMT+00:00

The Securities and Exchange Commission is widely believed to be getting ready to approve spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds this week, and those funds could pull in a whopping $50-100 billion worth of inflows this year, according to Standard Chartered Bank.

The bank compared the expected launch of spot bitcoin ETFs with gold ETFs and how those funds revolutionized investor access to the gold market. Specifically, Standard Chartered used the first U.S.-based gold ETF — SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) — as a point of comparison. GLD was introduced in 2004 and is currently the largest physically backed gold ETF in the world.

"When GLD was introduced in November 2004, the total stock of above-ground gold was worth around $2.2 trillion, compared with BTC's current market cap of $0.86 trillion. …