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You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm . Download the free LiSTN audio app on , or . I’m chatting with Christo de Witt, Luna’s SA country manager. Christo, appreciate the time today. Last week the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] in the US finally approved 11 bitcoin ETFs. This has been a long road, with them rejecting a couple of times and saying no. But this is in a sense a big deal for crypto. It’s another, in a sense, ‘growing up’ with crypto and entering mainstream financial markets. Rightfully so, Simon. It’s an absolute watershed moment for the industry. As you mentioned, it’s been a long time coming. The first ETF application in the US with the SEC was filed just over 10 years ago, [with] multiple rejections coming in. Eventually we got to this point where last week those 11 ETFs were approved – and there was a lot of optimism in the runup to this. We saw that in the momentum and the price movement. Now we see that that optimism or excitement has retracted a little if we just look at it from a pricing point of view. But I don’t think we should take a short-term view on it that these ETFs are just signalling that the price movement should be the signal of success, but rather take a more medium- to longer-term view on looking what the ETFs actually mean for the industry and for bitcoin as a whole. I take your point on that. I was speaking with someone ahead of the announcement and they were like, ah, institutions can buy. We’ve been able to buy, whether as a private client or an institution – and obviously exchanges such as Luna. I suppose some mandates perhaps wouldn’t allow it; but it means that a fund manager might not rush out and buy it but it’s now on the radar. And if we couple that locally with the FSCA, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, bringing it on board as well, this really is opening those doors. Absolutely. And I think we look that this signals the institutional adoption of it. Rightfully so. Any investor out there could have gone, opened a Luna account and bought bitcoin. And now with the ETFs open to the US market, US investors who might have been sceptical of opening a crypto exchange account and buying crypto themselves, can now access cryptocurrency in a platform that most investors are familiar with, and in an environment that they are more comfortable with. So it’s that thing around accessibility. Also, these fund managers are now able to diversify their portfolios and what they offer to their customers and their clients by making crypto part of that portfolio. So it speaks more to the accessibility and, as you say in your opening comment around the maturing of cryptocurrency and bitcoin, we see that on the road for further maturing coming in over the months and years to come. As you say that, I’m reminded that of course bitcoin is, what, not even 15 years old yet. In the big world that’s still fairly early in the process. What about locally? I mentioned we’ve got the FSCA bringing on board exchanges such as yourselves applying for their FSP licences. Do you think this kind of says to the JSE – which, as I understand, has rejected [it] in the past, – that maybe it’s time? I think one important thing from this SEC approval in the US – as the largest capital market – is that the world usually tends to follow. So if the US green lights something it’s most likely that other markets would follow. We know that the US was very reluctant in approving this ETF, so I have no doubt that we could potentially see a locally hosted ETF coming, and then that the JSE might have a change of mind going forward. But also with the licensing regimes, with cryptocurrencies now being financial products, crypto exchanges and other crypto companies need to hold financial services provider licences. This is also a step forward in cryptocurrency maturing and bringing cryptocurrency into that institutional fold, which [for] us in the industry is really such a game changer because it just broadens that accessibility. As you say, bitcoin as such is less than 15 years old. It’s really maturing and [being brought] into the mainstream. I’m trying to remember when I sold my first coins and it was a long time ago. I can’t remember how I sold them, but I so remember it was a process. It was not fun at all. I got my $200/coin, which shows when I sold them, but it wasn’t fun. Now it’s so much easier. We are talking bitcoin in particular, but of course crypto’s the bigger industry. This must also open the door for Ethereum, maybe some stablecoins, certainly not the altcoins, but of those sorts of big daddies in the room. I think so. We saw Omni approval; there was initial excitement. The bitcoin price shot up to a 21-month high of around $49 000 and has retracted now over the last few days back to that $42 000 mark – or just above the $42 000 mark. But interestingly what we saw is that the Ethereum price started increasing, as well as that optimism rising on [whether this] could signal the potential of an Ethereum ETF in the US. And I definitely think that [of] the other main cryptocurrencies of over $20 000 that are available, we will look at maybe the top 20 that account for more than 90% of the cryptocurrency market cap. I definitely think that there’s some optimism in that sense, and that it broadens the number of cryptocurrencies that might be brought into this institutionalised view as well. So a lot of optimism in that sense. And I think this lays the foundation for further development and is definitely something to keep your eye on. As you said up front, it’s an industry which is still fairly young, still growing and undoubtedly maturing. And to me this seems to be the really big step in that process. Christo de Witt, Luna SA country manager, I always appreciate the time.
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