The Decision On Bitwise’ ETF Request Gets Postponed By The U.S SEC Twice In A Row

It seems like Bitwise Asset Management has ‘wait and patience’ showing up on their cards. Four months ago, the company submitted a request to the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission for an approval on Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal. The results on the matter were expected on 16^th May, but the SEC has postponed it. SEC has extended the wait for another three weeks in order to see if there any public comments to come up. The reason why Bitwise Asset Management submitted this request was to set up Bitcoin ETFs on NYSE Arca.

This is not the first time that the U.S SEC has postponed the decision on Bitwise Asset Management. Rather it is the second time in a row. The first time was in March last year. At that time Bitwise and VanEck/SolidX proposals were postponed to May this year. The officials for the company are confident and hopeful and think that it is just a waiting game. Regarding the VanEck and SoldX proposals from last year, the decision is awaited on 21^st of this month.

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On the other hand, on May 13^th May, Consensus 2019 was held. The panel was titled- “Perspectives on SEC engagement concerning digital assets.” In the event, the chief of the office of capital markets trends at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission- Amy Starr had the following to say-

The more interaction and willingness that people want to engage with us, the happier we are because we want this to work. We want there to be innovation in these markets. We want there to be change.

Starr further talked about the “no-action letter” which was sent to TurnKey Jet- a crypto startup. In the same event, the commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commissioner- Peirce talked about the potential and the future of the digital currency. She encouraged mutual testing for further growth and an automatic regulation which may not even require government regulations.

The debate over whether regulations are needed, whether the centralized crypto ecosystem is better than decentralized one, and how rules and regulations can tackle the still new bubbling crypto industry which is screaming for freedom, absolute user privacy, and power to the user for controlling the data; is quite interesting.

On the other hand, recently another cryptocurrency-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) was filed with the SEC on 9^th of this month. This proposal was made by the subsidiary of – Crescent Crypto Index Services LLC. Here is an excerpt from the prospectus-

 XBET is an exchange-traded fund. This means that most investors who decide to buy or sell shares of XBET place their trade orders through their brokers and may incur customary brokerage commissions and charges. Shares of XBET are expected to trade on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol “XBET” and will be bought and sold throughout the trading day at bid and ask prices like other publicly traded securities.