Securities and Exchange Commissioner (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce has issued a statement expressing her disagreement with the Commission’s rejection of Wilshire Phoenix’s Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund application.
Peirce criticizes the SEC for unfair and narrow-minded treatment of Bitcoin-related products. Her term ends in a little over three months, in the beginning of June, some suggest that Peirce could be positioning herself for next position, after SEC.
The Commissioner states that SEC applies “ever-shifting standards” and in this way, no Bitcoin filling will every get approval. Moreover, she believes that SEC’s position on the topic deprives investors of “the ability to access bitcoin markets within our regulatory framework”.
Peirce adds that there has not been a “pre-Bitcoin” case where the SEC analyzed if the volumes were “significant when compared to the underlying commodity markets”
Hester Peirce stated:
Hester Peirce
In at least one case, the Commission approved a rule change to list shares of a product referencing a futures market that, at the time of approval, had no trading whatsoever.
Commissioner Peirce maintains that the conservative and contrary of the SEC towards Bitcoin-related products stands in the way of innovation and may drive entrepreneurs away along with the opportunities they create.
Furthermore, Peirce asserts that SEC’s attitude is “setting precedent that will make it more expensive to submit rule fillings to bring other listed products to market, and more difficult for the Commission to approve them.”
The SEC is made of five commissioners appointed by the U.S. president for a term of five years. With Peirce leaving in a few months, the Commission will likely become more hostile against crypto products.
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