At a May 23 event in New York, she said wallets can feel too tricky for most users.
Based on reports, about 200 million active Bitcoin wallets are in use worldwide. Yet, between May 17 and May 23, US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw nearly $2.70 billion in new money.
Bitcoin even hit a record high of $111,985 on May 22. People seem to trust ETFs more than setting up their own wallet right away. ETFs can live inside regular brokerage accounts, so you don’t need extra apps or backup phrases.
Yet Ether ETFs haven’t taken off as fast. The US Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t allow staking inside those funds, making them less appealing to some yield-seeking investors.
According to Wood, staking would have made Ether ETFs more attractive. Staking lets you earn rewards by locking up coins. Without it, these ETFs are just holding the token, so they don’t compete with direct staking in the protocol.
It plunged about 50% just days later when no crypto-related orders appeared in his first days in office. That roller-coaster likely made some advisers think twice about Solana’s reliability.
Wood thinks crypto ETFs will remain an “insurance policy” for people worried about traditional markets. At the same time, they act as a bridge. She expects new investors to start with Bitcoin or Ether in ETFs and then move into wallets to explore things like smart contracts and other tokens.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
