2024-01-11
US spot ETFs begin trading (11 Jan 2024)
After a decade of rejections, Wall Street gets direct bitcoin exposure.
On 11 January 2024, eleven US spot bitcoin ETFs began trading after the SEC’s approval the day before — ending a saga of rejections that had run since the first filing in 2013, and following a court ruling that the agency’s refusals were arbitrary. The launches broke ETF records for early inflows.
The ETFs put bitcoin inside the machinery of traditional finance: retirement accounts, advisors, mandates. Bitcoiners split on whether that is victory or dilution — paper claims versus self-custody — which is precisely the tension worth understanding.
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