The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday approved the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds to track bitcoin. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe says that in a watershed move for the broader crypto industry, the SEC approved 11 applications, including from BlackRock, Ark Investments, 21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco and VanEck. Some products are expected to begin trading as early as today. Now, institutional and retail investors can gain exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency without directly holding it. Standard Chartered analysts this week said that the ETFs could draw $50-billion to $100-billion this year alone, potentially driving the price of bitcoin as high as $100,000 (all figures U.S.). Other analysts have said inflows will be closer to $55-billion over five years. The green light marks a U-turn for the SEC, which for a decade rejected bitcoin ETFs owing to worries they could be easily manipulated; SEC chair Gary Gensler is a fierce crypto skeptic. Hopes the SEC would finally approve bitcoin ETFs surged last year after a Federal Appeals Court ruled that the agency was wrong to reject an ETF application from Grayscale Investments.