Over the past couple of years, the SEC has been “struggling” with the case of whether to approve or not the numerous Bitcoin ETF applications coming its way. The SEC so far has somewhat felt “uncomfortable”judging the applications, as the Commission has stated that it needs further knowledge and expertise in the field in order to judge if an application for a Bitcoin ETF is “worthy” of being approved or not.
The regulatory body has either rejected or delayed the applications, including those of the Winklevoss brothers. And the cryptocurrency industry is waiting to see if the US financial regulatory body will ever approve a Bitcoin ETF.
According to news from CNBC, the SEC is “still in information-gathering mode” when it comes to the Bitcoin ETF decision. The comments about the situation comes from Mr. Dave Nadig, who is the managing director of a leading authority of exchange-traded funds, who said that while there are deadlines in place, the SEC “can do what they want….”.
Mr. Nadig commented that the approval of a Bitcoin ETF is more or less a sure thing down the road, but the SEC does not really feel “comfortable” yet to approve such a product. Maybe there is more hope once the market matures. However, there are now different interpretations of what a mature market means.
Back in March 2019, Mr. Jay Clayton, the chairman of the SEC commented on his concerns regarding the much-awaited approval of a Bitcoin ETF, saying:
What I’m concerned about at the moment is if it can be reasonably demonstrated that the underlying trading is generally not manipulated, it’s happening on reliable venues with good rules and that custody is something we can feel comfortable about.