The Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler revealed on Thursday that the SEC is currently reviewing eight to ten applications for spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
To date, the SEC has not granted approval for any funds that directly invest in bitcoin itself. Instead, the agency has only given the green light to ETFs that invest in bitcoin futures contracts..
Regarding the potential approval of bitcoin funds, Gensler stated, “They’ll come potentially to the five-member commission. I’m not going to prejudge them but I don’t have anything on timing. They all have various different filing dates.”
Public records indicate that there are currently twelve bitcoin fund applications awaiting SEC approval.
Prominent financial institutions such as Grayscale, ARK Invest, BlackRock, Bitwise, WisdomTree, Fidelity, and VanEck, have all sought permission to establish bitcoin funds.
It’s important to mention that the SEC has delayed making decisions on these spot Bitcoin ETFs.
However, Eight of these applications are scheduled for possible review in the first quarter of 2024, and three in the second quarter.
The news about the SEC’s consideration of multiple spot bitcoin ETFs coincides with a recent increase in bitcoin prices due to speculation that Blackrock, one of the largest asset management companies in the world, is close to launching its own bitcoin ETF.
Additionally, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has recently instructed the SEC to re-evaluate Grayscale Investments’ spot bitcoin ETF application.
Some analysts, including those at JPmorgan, are optimistic that SEC might approve several spot Bitcoin EFTs at the same time in the coming months.
However, Gensler maintains a strict stance on crypto rules. At a 2023 Securities Enforcement forum held on Oct 25th, he stressed the need for regulatory safeguards in the cryptocurrency market, stating that there’s no reason why investors and issuers in the crypto market should have fewer protections compared to traditional securities.
“There is nothing about the crypto asset securities markets that suggests that investors and issuers are less deserving of the protections of our securities laws.” Gensler said.
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