Part of the reason bitcoin ETFs are so valuable is because they provide investors an opportunity to test the crypto waters in a way that’s familiar (ETFs for gold, for instance, have been available since the early 2000s). It opens the door to an entirely new generation of investors. It allows people to access one of the essential pieces of the crypto asset ecosystem: the price. By owning a fund that owns bitcoin, you gain indirect exposure to the potential price appreciation of bitcoin, and you offload the responsibilities of custody, acquisition, and disposition to tried and true institutions: household names like Blackrock, Grayscale, Fidelity, and Ark Invest, to name a few.