I am thinking of buying bitcoin, but I do not want to hold BTC in wallet, so I would like to buy bitcoin ETF. But If the ETF holds real BTC, what would happen if someone hacks the bitcoin held by the ETF, does it mean every investor of that ETF would lose everything? So I prefer an ETF that does not hold any real bitcoin or bitcoin future since future has degradation. The ETF's NAV is purely determined by the bitcoin spot price. Is there such ETF?
I thought about this the other day, like an etf based on a bitcoin total return swap with a bank or something like that. I don’t think this exists. that being said, if you’re bitcoin held with blackrock somehow gets hacked, I’m pretty sure blackrock will make you whole. plus because it’s in ETF a.k.a. technically a security you have SIPC insurance as well
Ehhh don't even worry about it. ... You know what happens. The federal reserve steps in a saves the day. Remember those few bank collapses last year. Well the fed came in and saved the day. They ways save wallstreet so no worries they will come and print money or do what ever it takes ....
You're lookin for an Exchange Traded Note (ETN), not an ETF. An ETF has to hold the underlying assets, an ETN is really just a big bank promising you to track the underlying index. USOI is an ETN backed by Credit Suisse, for example, AMJ is backed by JPMorgan Chase. ETN just shifts risk, instead of worrying about hacking into an ETF's BTC you have to worry about Credit Suisse going bankrupt. Unfortunately AFAIK there are no BTC ETNs yet.
I would think if an ETF company gets hacked they would have to cover the funds stolen. Buying an ETF would be safer, but that's also the reason why you pay the ridiculously high fees of buying one in the first place. I much rather buy from a crypto exchange and store everything in my own wallet than have to deal with the fees associated with an ETF. Plus I don't think an ETF allows 24/7 trading like the crypto exchanges do.
I would carefully read the prospectus. Even if some fund is supposed to cover the loss, unless they have an insurance policy where is that money coming from? Last one I looked at said things like: If we get sued we're selling some of the Bitcoins from the trust to cover the cost. Someone might have insurance, but I wouldn't expect it to be cheap.
I was under the assumption that getting hacked is only possible if someone hacked a file that has your key saved to it. I can see your average nontechnical dummy (me) getting hacked, but you would think that BlackRock and friends have taken EVERY precaution to keep this from happening. Am I wrong?
How do you think insurance companies work? When was the last time you have ever filed a claim with your insurance? They make billions of dollars on everyone that doesn't need them. Of course they can cover some hacked funds. There are even insurance companies for insurance companies. I'm sure the ETF companies are smart enough to not have all their holdings in 1 wallet. Now a spot ETF would mean they would buy as soon as someone makes an order, I bet they probably have a different wallet for each order. So a hacker would have to gather all the seed phrases (there can be as much as 40 words) just to hack 1 wallet. It's not even worth it to hack because crypto is traceable. It would be like waking up in the morning and deciding to rob a bank for a few thousand dollars. No person with a decent life is going to even think of that.