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- SEC consistently kicks out the proposals of BTC and ETF
- The review period for the VanEck bid has been extended for the second time.
- The general public will have 21 days after the document is published in the Federal Register
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States keeps kicking the bitcoin ETF down the road. The regulator postponed a decision on the VanEck Bitcoin Trust again in a Wednesday filing. The SEC usually makes a decision on prospective applications within 45 days, but it might take up to 240 days. The review period for the VanEck bid has been extended for the second time. The approval of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States is still the white whale of the crypto industry. On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accepted VanEck’s 19b-4 Form for its bitcoin (BTC, -2.33 percent) exchange-traded fund (ETF) application, thus launching the SEC’s 45-day window for making an initial judgment on the proposal. If authorized, the ETF would be the first open bitcoin exchange-traded product in the United States, despite the crypto community’s lengthy demand for such a product. The SEC has already denied every bitcoin ETF application, including VanEck’s previous attempts, citing the risk of market manipulation and a variety of other issues.
After many applications were denied in late 2019 and early 2020, a number of additional businesses, including Valkyrie and WisdomTree, have applied for bitcoin ETFs in recent months. The SEC also requested public comment on VanEck’s application in the same document. The regulator requested interested parties to respond to questions regarding how vulnerable the ETF would be to market manipulation and if the regulatory landscape has altered considerably since the initial bitcoin ETF applications in 2016. VanEck applied for the ETF with the Cboe BZX Exchange earlier this year, and the 19b-4 was published by Cboe in early March. The general public will have 21 days after the document is published in the Federal Register (the nation’s logbook) to submit comments via the SEC’s site.
Industry insiders think the agency will finally be ready to approve one under new Chair Gary Gensler, a former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) who has been a vocal supporter of crypto and blockchain technology, teaching classes on the subject at MIT in recent years.
The SEC has consistently cited concerns about fraud and manipulation in the underlying bitcoin spot market in rejecting several bitcoin ETF applications, Nathan Geraci, president of the ETF had said. The SEC is concerned that they do not have enough oversight of crypto exchanges and, as a result, cannot provide adequate investor protections, he added. VanEck did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Recent ETF approvals in Canada might indicate that an ETF is on the way in the United States. Three of the first North American bitcoin ETFs have already begun trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with one seeing almost $500 million in assets under management in its first few days.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
