SEC Likely to Approve First Bitcoin Futures ETF
- “People familiar with the matter” told Bloomberg that we could see the first futures-based BTC ETF in the U.S. starting to trade next week.
- There are currently four futures-based BTC ETF applications that are approaching their SEC decision deadlines, with experts predicting ProShares proposal was the most likely to pass.
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We could soon see the first Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) getting approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Bloomberg reported on 15 October.
The publication cited “people familiar with the matter”, who said that the “regulator isn’t likely to block the products from starting to trade next week”. Bloomberg has also predicted that ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF is the one most likely to be approved, considering it is based on futures contracts, and was filed under mutual fund rules that the SEC Chairman has said provide “significant investor protections”. Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said on Twitter:
After the news broke out Bitcoin’s price was quick to jump over $60,000 for the first time in several months, which is not surprising at all considering the first application for such a product was submitted by the Winklevoss twins back in 2013. Despite almost a decade of attempts, not a single BTC ETF has been approved by the U.S. SEC, which argued in the past that the crypto space is plagued with investor hazards.
We have seen a small change in the SEC’s stance on BTC ETFs recently, with SEC Chair Gary Gensler expressing his interest for funds based on CME-traded Bitcoin futures filed under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The SEC’s decision deadline is not only approaching for ProShare’s application, but also for three other ETF proposals based on futures contracts, namely Invecos, VanEck, and Valkyrie.
- During an interview with FT, CEO Brian Armstrong said that before the lawsuit a SEC staff member had said that all crypto except BTC was security, and should be delisted.
- When asked how he came to that conclusion, the SEC staff member reportedly said “we’re not going to explain it to you, you need to delist every asset other that Bitcoin”.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong appears on stage at the 2014 TechCrunch Disrupt Europe/London, at The Old Billingsgate on October 21, 2014 in London, England. Anthony Harvey/Getty Images for TechCrunch
- A federal judge ruled that the sale of XRP through exchanges and algorithms did not qualify as selling securities, which could have a major impact on several SEC lawsuits.
- The institutional sale of the token, however, did violate federal securities laws, and the lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple will have to go to trial.
- Binance had filed a complaint against a 17 June SEC press release, claiming that the regulator had made “misleading” statements that could have tainted the jury pool.
- The presiding judge rejected the complaint by saying that it was not the court’s mandate to “wordsmith” public statements, and that it was not clear if the statements had any effect on the case.