The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accepted six spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) applications for review. The agency has taken an aggressive stance against cryptocurrencies under President Joe Biden.
Following the SEC’s announcement of a lawsuit against Coinbase, the leading U.S.-based crypto exchange earlier this year, there was a flurry of applications for Bitcoin ETFs from major funds.
Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
US President Joe Biden (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The SEC is now committed to reviewing six of them.
Via Reuters:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accepted applications to create spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds from six firms including BlackRock (BLK.N) for review, the first step in the agency’s process for deciding whether or not to approve the latest round of proposals.
The SEC also formally acknowledged applications from Bitwise, VanEck, WisdomTree (WT.N), Fidelity and Invesco (IVZ.N) for similar spot bitcoin ETFs, with those proposals appearing on the Federal Register Tuesday and Wednesday.
The first bitcoin futures ETF was approved in October 2021, helping send the volatile bitcoin to an all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021.
The SEC has taken an aggressive stance against the cryptocurrency industry under Biden-appointed chairman Gary Gensler.
However, one of its major cases, against the cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) ran into difficulties recently, with a court ruling against the SEC’s charge that XRP is an unregistered security. The SEC is appealing the ruling.
Previous attempts to launch Bitcoin ETFs have been denied by the SEC. In 2018, the commission denied nine applications for ETFs linked to the leading cryptocurrency.
At the time, the SEC said it was unpersuaded that the ETFs would not be prone to manipulation.
“The Exchange has failed to establish that other means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices will be sufficient, and therefore surveillance-sharing with a regulated market of significant size related to bitcoin is necessary,” said the SEC in a statement at the time.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.