Thanks to secondary markets like SecondMarket, a new asset class is born. Bitcoin, the virtual currency, had been picking a lot of traction lately after experiencing a sharp surge in trading in Asia, especially in China.

SecondMarket is a platform wherein people sell assets that are considered illiquid or could not be converted to cash easily. Some of the assets traded in the online marketplace aside from Bitcoin are limited partnership interests, private company stock, auction‐rate securities and bankruptcy claims. Bitcoin sprang from a concept concocted by a pseudonymous developer named Satoshi Nakamoto. 

Secondmarket's launch of The Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT) could be thought of as an investment proxy for Bitcoin startup investments that does not carry the risk of management team execution or correct business model adoption, said an article written by John Matonis of Coindesk, which was published on The Monetary Future blog. Moreover, the blog argued that the Bitcoin trust was a precursor to more exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are mostly oriented in retail, and requires due diligence and the necessary clearance from regulators. 

Also, the blog said that an investor's position in the Bitcoin was essential to partake in potential gains or risks from an virtual currency-based economy.

The blog shot down skeptics, most notably Felix Salmon, who wrote his commentary about SecondMarket facilitating vehicles for investors to ride into the Bitcoin mania. Salmon was quoted about the Bitcoin trust of the online marketplace as saying, "This trust strips out the interesting bit, which is the currency part, leaving just the stupidly speculative commodity aspect."

The blog, in response, said, "As with most professional critics at the beginning of a new asset class, the cries of disbelief and suggestions of investor imprudence are to be expected because prior to becoming portfolio orthodoxy an element of risk weeds out the non-brave."