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Now that regulators have cleared the way, regular investors will have easier access to the most mainstream — and valuable — cryptocurrency through bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision Wednesday followed numerous setbacks for the digital assets sector, including several pronounced downturns since 2022 and the successful criminal prosecutions of two of the industry’s biggest players — Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, and his rival, Changpeng Zhao of Binance.

But the move, approved in a 3-2 vote, fell well short of a ringing endorsement. In a social media post on Tuesday ahead of the vote, SEC Chair Gary Gensler cautioned, “Crypto asset securities may be marketed as new opportunities but there are serious risks involved.”

First introduced in 2009, bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency, a type of monetary asset that can be exchanged anonymously. Over the past decade, bitcoin has continued to be the most popular and stable cryptocurrency, rising to a peak of about $64,000 per coin in November 2021. After crashing along with other crypto assets in 2022, bitcoin has since rebounded. On Thursday morning, its value sat above $47,000 per coin, its price buoyed by the SEC’s announcement.

ETF stands for “exchange-traded fund,” which is very much like a mutual fund but can be traded like stocks on financial markets. Some ETFs peg their value to the performance of the S&P 500 index, while others rise and fall with the value of more specific assets and investments, such as stocks, bonds, commodities — and now bitcoin.

The value of bitcoin ETFs is tethered to the price of their namesake currency. Asset managers will now be able to sell them to regular consumers, further incorporating bitcoin into the mainstream.

Previously, buying bitcoin and other crypto was more complicated: Investors had to go through cryptocurrency trading firms such as Coinbase that charged transaction fees. Now, retail investors will be able to buy the bitcoin ETFs in the same way they might acquire a public company’s stock or a mutual fund.

The regulator maintains that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are extremely risky, and it has been wary of approving bitcoin ETFs. But Gensler said in a statement Wednesday that a court case essentially forced its hand.

Last year, a federal court ruled that the SEC had not sufficiently explained its reasons for rejecting an application to list a bitcoin ETF by crypto asset manager Grayscale. The agency’s decision came in response to that ruling, Gensler said.

“While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot bitcoin ETP [exchange-traded product] shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin,” Gensler said, using the agency’s preferred term for the bitcoin ETF. “Investors should remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto.”

All crypto currencies, including bitcoin, are extremely speculative and volatile. After the FTX crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, the price of bitcoin plunged to roughly $16,000 in a month and a half, compared with its peak of about $64,000 in 2021. Multiple crypto banks and exchanges collapsed in 2022, and many investors were wiped out.

Moreover, the industry is still rife with scams, and bitcoin is regularly used by criminals to move money without being blocked by governments.

In a dissenting opinion, SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw said she was deeply “concerned that these products will flood the markets and land squarely in the retirement accounts of U.S. households who can least afford to lose their savings to the fraud and manipulation that appears prevalent in the spot bitcoin markets and will impact the [bitcoin ETF’s].”

Eleven firms won approval to issue the ETFs. They include traditional asset managers Fidelity and Invesco, as well as crypto-focused Grayscale Investments, Valkyrie Funds and Hashdex.

The ETFs started trading Thursday, according to Reuters. Those included BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF.