SEC partisan divide could alter Bitcoin ETF approval odds, former SEC attorney predicted

According to erstwhile SEC lawyer John Reed Stark the existent SEC, nether the chairmanship of Gary Gensler, is improbable to o.k. a Bitcoin spot ETF exertion centering connected important regulatory concerns, including the quality to forestall fraud and support investors.

The SEC crypto divide.

Interestingly, Stark believes the contented of crypto regularisation has evolved into a partisan disagreement wrong the SEC, a melodramatic displacement from the bipartisan statement against cryptocurrencies erstwhile Stark archetypal began penning astir the taxable successful 2017.

This partisanship has manifested successful assorted ways, including the SEC’s crypto crackdown initiated by erstwhile Republican-appointed SEC Chair Jay Clayton, notable for his staunch disapproval and sweeping regulatory actions against cryptocurrencies.

The imaginable interaction of the upcoming 2024 U.S. statesmanlike predetermination connected the regulatory scenery is different origin to consider, according to Stark. If a Republican is elected, helium predicts a important alteration successful the SEC’s crypto-enforcement efforts.

This imaginable simplification could pb to a much crypto-friendly environment, with the SEC perchance becoming much receptive to approving a Bitcoin spot ETF. Furthermore, different important crypto-friendly regulatory actions whitethorn beryllium much apt to occur.

Stark besides highlighted that the SEC, being an autarkic national agency, is taxable to enactment changes pursuing statesmanlike elections.

Hester Peirce, coined arsenic the “crypto-mom” by Stark for her enactment of cryptocurrencies, could go the acting Chair if a Republican is elected, with the existent Chair, Gensler, apt to resign.

Given Peirce’s lengthy grounds of dissent towards astir crypto-related SEC actions, this alteration could importantly interaction the SEC’s stance connected cryptocurrencies.

Better Markets missive to SEC.

Stark besides referenced a Better Markets letter to the SEC which noted respective issues with the projected regularisation changes that would let the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin ETFs.

These see concerns astir manipulation successful the Bitcoin market, with allegations of “wash trading” creating mendacious volumes.

Furthermore, Better Markets argued that the projected surveillance-sharing agreements with trading platforms similar Coinbase are insufficient to observe manipulation, fixed that Coinbase represents lone 5% of planetary Bitcoin trading.

The enactment besides points retired that concentrated ownership of Bitcoin presents a risk, with 50 miners controlling fractional of the mining capableness and the apical 10,000 Bitcoin wallets owning 27% of Bitcoins.

Ultimately, Stark asserted that the SEC’s decisions connected Bitcoin ETFs and related regulatory issues are apt to beryllium influenced by assorted factors, including interior politics, the broader governmental landscape, and ongoing concerns astir marketplace manipulation and capitalist protection.

As the governmental spectrum stands today, Stark does not judge a spot Bitcoin ETF volition beryllium approved, and it volition necessitate changes to the regulatory scenery for it to bash so.

The station SEC partisan disagreement could change Bitcoin ETF support odds, erstwhile SEC lawyer predicted appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.