SEC under congressional scrutiny as BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF application moves forward

2 years ago

U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry said helium would “closely” ticker however the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) responds to BlackRock’s exertion for a spot Bitcoin ETF successful a June 16 tweet.

McHenry noted that portion the determination present rests with SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the fiscal regulator “must not prime winners and losers based connected inconsistent factors.”

The lawmaker’s remark suggests that the SEC would person to explicate wherefore it rejected each the erstwhile spot Bitcoin ETF applications from different crypto firms if it approves that of BlackRock.

Considering BlackRock’s presumption arsenic 1 of the biggest concern firms successful the satellite and its influence, respective crypto assemblage members believe the SEC volition beryllium nether important unit to o.k. its application.

BlackRock’s ETF application

On June 15, BlackRock applied for a Bitcoin spot ETF. Coinbase Custody would enactment arsenic the custodian for the integer assets, portion the Bank of New York Mellon would clasp the ETF’s fiat.

According to its application, the SEC has antecedently approved unregulated spot exchange-traded products successful the commodities and currency markets by relying connected the underlying futures market. Thus, “the regulated marketplace of important size trial does not necessitate that the spot bitcoin marketplace beryllium regulated successful bid for the Commission to o.k. this proposal.”

SEC has a past of rejecting Bitcoin spot ETFs

The Commission has rejected implicit 10 spot Bitcoin ETF applications from antithetic firms, including  Ark Invest, 21 Shares, WisdomTree, Fidelity, SkyBridge, Valkyrie Investments, and VanEck.

Additionally, the regulator has frustrated Grayscale Investments’ effort to person its Bitcoin Trust into a spot ETF. The crypto concern steadfast is presently challenging the SEC’s determination successful court.

In these cases, the Commission has consistently maintained that these firms’ applications failed to comply with definite sections of the Securities Exchange Act and were not designed to forestall fraud and marketplace manipulation oregon support investors and nationalist interests.

However, the SEC has approved assorted Bitcoin futures ETFs since October 2021, including ProShares Bitcoin Strategy (BITO) and Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF).

The station SEC nether legislature scrutiny arsenic BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF exertion moves forward appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.

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