The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally approved a trade Bitcoin Spot Forex Trading Funds (ETFs) on Wednesday, as expected, but at least one SEC commissioner is at a loss for words to describe the losses caused by the long wait to the agency, investors and the cryptocurrency industry.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, a longtime advocate of cryptocurrencies Nicknamed “Mother of Crypto” by fans, She issued her statement At work Wednesday. This followed a statement from Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, who… He took on a more rueful tone About the long-awaited Bitcoin European Training Foundation approval.
“Today marks the end of an unnecessary, but significant, saga,” Pierce wrote, noting that the first application for a spot Bitcoin ETF was filed in the US more than 10 years ago. She said the question of why there was a need for a bitcoin exchange-traded product (or ETP) came up regularly over her six years with the agency.
“For reasons I have explained many times before, the logic of the long line of denials is baffling,” she wrote. “Predicting approval timelines for Bitcoin exchange-traded products was impossible because the review process for these filings did not resemble the fairly straightforward processes for approving similar ETP products. The target lists kept moving as the commission slapped the word ‘denied’ on the application after the application was filed.”
Pierce notes that the SEC’s lack of prior action “has pushed retail investors to less efficient means of achieving exposure to Bitcoin in the securities markets,” and says that “rather than admit error, the (SEC) offers a weak explanation for its change of position.” “.
“We squandered a decade of opportunities to do our work,” she wrote. “If we had applied the standard we use to other commodity-based exchange-traded products, we would have approved these products years ago, but we refused to do so until the court called us bluff.”
The SEC’s decision to finally approve spot Bitcoin ETFs came after the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit He ruled in August The agency must review the request from crypto company Grayscale to convert it Bitcoin Trust To a real ETF. The court wrote that without a “coherent explanation” for why Bitcoin ETFs were rejected, such rejection appeared to be “unlawful.”
Gensler alluded to the court’s ruling in His own statementwriting that although the latest implementation of a Bitcoin ETF resembles previous attempts, “circumstances have changed.”
“Based on these circumstances and those more fully discussed in the Consent Order, I feel that the most sustainable path forward is to approve the listing and trading of Bitcoin shares traded on a spot exchange,” Gensler continued.
Pierce points
Despite Wednesday’s approval, “the order does not undo the many harms caused by the disparate treatment of spot bitcoin products,” Pierce predicted, before delving into a series of specific issues she believes are caused by the SEC’s aggressive approach to fighting cryptocurrencies on the market. wide range. last decade.
“First, our arbitrary and capricious treatment of apps in this space will continue to damage our reputation beyond cryptocurrencies,” she explained. “Diminished public confidence will hamper our ability to effectively regulate markets. This saga will distort future interactions between the industry and our staff and weaken the information-rich dialogue that best protects investors.”
Pierce also pointed to what she sees as a waste of resources, as “potentially millions of dollars of staff time have gone into blocking these apps” over the years. She also said it “confounded people’s understanding of the SEC’s role” during that period.
“Congress did not authorize us to tell people whether a particular investment is right for them, but we have abused administrative procedures to withhold from the public investments we don’t like,” she said.
Furthermore, Pierce believes that the SEC’s actions “created an artificial frenzy” around Bitcoin ETFs, and that if the regulator had followed its own rules, “we would have avoided the circus atmosphere we find ourselves in now.”
She also believes the SEC has “alienated a generation of product innovators in our industry,” and laments the “costly legal battle” that finally led to the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs.
“While this is a time for reflection, it is also a time for celebration. I do not celebrate Bitcoin or products related to Bitcoin; what one regulator thinks about Bitcoin is irrelevant,” she added. “I celebrate the right of American investors to express their thoughts on Bitcoin.” Bitcoin through buying and selling Bitcoin exchange-traded products.”
“And I celebrate the perseverance of market participants in trying to bring to market a product they believe investors want,” Pierce continued. “I applaud the applicants’ decade-long tenacity in the face of Commission obstruction.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
Show alert: listening to FOMO Clock for Rug Radio at 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday to hear Decrypt’s Stacey Elliott and Fox Business’ Eleanor Teret talk all things Bitcoin ETFs with Farouk Sarmad, Michael Anderson, and Ovi Farouk.