On Wednesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler announced that the regulator had approved the first US-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to track Bitcoin.

According to a notice on the US SEC website, 11 applications, including those from BlackRock, Ark Investments/21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco, and VanEck, have been approved. Most of the exchange-traded products (ETP) are expected to begin trading Thursday, issuers said.

This is a historic development for the world’s largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto industry. Analysts at Standard Chartered predicted this week that these ETFs could attract $50 to $100 billion this year alone.

Some issuers have lowered their fees to a range from 0.2% to 1.5% in new filings this week, including BlackRock and Ark/21Shares, to attract investors, with some firms waiving fees entirely for a certain period of time.

A flurry of online advertising and other forms of marketing about these ETPs the issuer companies is expected. Some issuers, such as Bitwise and VanEck, have already released advertisements promoting Bitcoin as an investment.

Earlier yesterday, the SEC’s account on social media platform X was reportedly compromised, and an unauthorised person published a fake post, saying the agency had approved the new products for trading.