According to separate filings Monday, SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) has postponed judgments on applications for spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds from WisdomTree Investments (WETF) and One River Asset Management.
The SEC noted in each of the filings:
“The Commission believes it is appropriate to establish a longer timeframe within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has adequate opportunity to review the proposed rule change and any comments received”.
One River’s proposal has been postponed until April 3, and WisdomTree’s application has been postponed until May 15. WisdomTree’s application had previously been dismissed by the SEC in December, but the fund manager had made revisions and resubmitted it. All spot bitcoin ETFs have been refused by the SEC or have had their rulings postponed. The SEC’s most recent moves, prior to Monday’s statements, were last month’s denials of applications from NYDIG and Global X.
The regulator mentioned the requirement for a regulated market of considerable scale related to the underlying or reference bitcoin assets to have a complete surveillance-sharing agreement with an exchange that lists BTC spot ETFs. An agreement like this serves as a crucial deterrent to manipulation while also allowing for investigation if it does happen. NYDIG and NYSE Arca maintained in their application that the SEC’s worries about manipulation had been greatly alleviated, and that they had sufficient safeguards in place to protect investors and combat fraud. The SEC, on the other hand, isn’t having it, arguing that its requirements haven’t been satisfied.
While the SEC has been adamantly opposed to BTC spot ETFs, it has already approved numerous futures ETFs under Chairman Gary Gensler. The SEC’s approach to these two forms of ETFs has irritated some, with Grayscale, an institutional investment business affiliated with the Mastercard cartel’s Digital Currency Group, claiming that the SEC is breaching the law by not treating all ETFs equally.
Read more: Congress members oppose SEC’s information requests to crypto firms