A third of Americans will buy Bitcoin by the end of 2022, Ric Edelman says

The BTC bull (find out how buy Bitcoins in our guide) and founder of Edelman Financial Engines Ric Edelman made some promising predictions about the future of seminal cryptocurrency.

He has recommended investing in BTC for years

In an interview with CNBC's ETF Edge program on Monday, Edelman said:

“We are already a quarter of that number with 24% of Americans owning Bitcoin. It won't be a big effort to get to a third. Bitcoin is becoming more and more mainstream. People hear about it everywhere - it's not going away ”.

While 2022 has had a difficult start, in his opinion, governments, companies, foundations and pension funds are investing in Bitcoin: "There is a great deal of institutional involvement."

As the author of The Truth About Crypto, forthcoming, Edelman is a longtime advocate of cryptocurrencies. In 2019, he described Bitcoin as the first "truly new asset class" in 150 years, and as early as December 2018, he recommended investors to load on the orange coin.

In a follow-up interview with CNBC on Tuesday, he complained that while he has been predicting a spot ETF (exchange-traded fund) for the past seven years, he is confident that by 2023 there will be a spot ETF approval. .

The protection offered by an ETF

Similar to United States Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce's thoughts on the matter, Edelman articulates that the SEC is running out of excuses to say no:

“Many of the concerns the SEC has have been resolved by the industry through its own maturity, innovation and development. I am confident that we will see the SEC say yes because there is no legitimate reason not to. ”

Matthew Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, agreed with him in the second interview.

Hougan said there would be even more protections for investors and a better product thanks to the "cumulative weight of evidence that will force them to move forward with approval." The consumer protection provided by a SEC managed ETF is the icing on top of a crafty product.

ETF speculation aside, Edelman is clairvoyant about the banality of Satoshi Nakamoto's invention in the future. He summed it up succinctly, saying that Bitcoin "will be as common in the next couple of years as any other part of a wallet".