Who will win the bitcoin race: Winklevoss Twins or SecondMarket?

Last year, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss announced their plans to launch the world’s first publicly traded Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Unfortunately, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has been mired in the complexities of Securities and Exchange Commission regulation, leaving the field open for competition. If Barry Silbert’s SecondMarket has their way, the Winklevii will be stuck in second place.

Business Insider reports that SecondMarket’s publicly traded, over-the-counter Bitcoin fund, the Bitcoin Investment Trust, should hit the market by Q4 of this year. As Silbert explained:

The plan all along was to move the [Bitcoin Investment Trust] into the public market in a similar way to the Winklevosses. But we’ve learned the route they’re taking takes many years to get approved, and there’s a high level of uncertainty when it will get done. [SecondMarket’s process] does not require SEC approval.”

Once launched, BIT will mostly likely trade through a service like e-Trade or TD Ameritrade. Silbert says his eventual goal is to see the fund on the NYSE or NASDAQ, but expects that process could take years.