The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States has denied two applications to construct Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the spot market.
According to SEC filings, the regulator has denied NYSE Arca’s request to amend a regulation allowing for the listing and trading of the NYDIG Bitcoin ETF.
The decision comes months after the SEC extended the deadline for commenting on the proposed rule change.
Separately, the regulator refuses Cboe BZX Exchange’s request to amend regulation to allow it to do the same thing with the Global X Bitcoin Trust.
The SEC asserts that neither NYSE nor BZX complies with the minimal legal standards necessary to operate a securities exchange platform legally in the United States.
“The Commission concludes that [NYSE Arca and BZX] have failed to meet their burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice of demonstrating that [their] proposals are consistent with the requirements of Exchange Act Section 6(b)(5), particularly the requirement that a national securities exchange’s rules be ‘designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practises and ‘to protect investors and the public interest.'”
The SEC has rejected a number of proposals for BTC ETFs, including those from VanEck, a US-based ETF provider, and Fidelity, a financial services behemoth.
A spot Bitcoin ETF would monitor the performance of the underlying Bitcoin holdings of a specific fund. Though the Commission has yet to approve a Bitcoin ETF based on spot prices, Chairman Gary Gensler has indicated that the agency would be more receptive to Bitcoin ETFs based on futures prices.
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