One of the biggest events in the cryptocurrency sector's history occurred last night when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 asset managers' applications for the registration of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The funds are expected to commence operations today at the U.S. market open. Galaxy Digital, one of the leading trading desks, has compiled (see here) potential investments in these funds for the first few years, expecting an investment of about $14 billion in the first year and $39 billion over the first three years. Standard Chartered Bank expects $50 - $100 billion in the first year, while the market value of Bitcoin today is about $900 billion. Thus, these are significant amounts in context with the market value of cryptocurrency.

The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, is among the applicants whose applications were approved yesterday. BlackRock manages over 9 trillion dollars ($9,000,000,000,000). Also among this group is the world's third-largest asset manager, Fidelity Investments, which manages assets of $4.2 trillion.

This milestone will significantly increase access to Bitcoin for both institutional investors and individuals. It also recognizes Bitcoin as an asset and cryptocurrencies as an asset class. BlackRock, Fidelity, and others have already applied for registration of an Ethereum exchange-traded fund with the SEC, and these applications are expected to be approved this spring.

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency, and Ethereum is the second largest. These two cryptocurrencies make up about 70% of the total market value of all cryptocurrency markets.