U.S. SEC Chair Hints at Bitcoin ETF Approvals: The Countdown Begins

• In an interview with CNBC, SEC chairman Gary Gensler said that a Bitcoin spot ETF is “going through the process right now,” stoking excitement that the January approval could be coming.
• Gensler insisted that the SEC is determined to protect investors even as it pushes for innovation, hinting that Grayscale’s court ruling has been the catalyst for the ETF wave.

The biggest buzz in the crypto world right now is tied to the anticipated approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, with the decision expected in January next year. As the crypto market counts down the days until the SEC makes its decision public, the agency’s chair remained tight-lipped about the specifics but says that the watchdog is conducting its process.

As CNF has reported in recent times, a number of leading financial firms have applied for the spot BTC ETF, key among them BlackRock, a $9 trillion asset manager with a stellar record on its ETF applications. Others include Fidelity, a $4.5 trillion asset manager and Grayscale, one of the biggest companies in the crypto world. Unlike the others, Grayscale isn’t looking to start afresh; rather, it wants to turn its $16 billion BTC trust into an ETF.

In his interview with CNBC, SEC chair Gary Gensler dug into his agency’s work on AI, regulatory crackdowns and touched on the ETF applications.

“Well, Sara, we have, I think, between eight and a dozen filings. I’m chair of a commission. I’m not to prejudge anything.” Gensler told Sara Eisen, the host of the network’s Money Movers.

He added:

So, that’s going through the process right now. And as you might know, we had in the past denied a number of these applications, but the courts here in the District of Columbia weighed in on that. And so we’re taking a new look at this based upon those court rulings.

The reference to the DC courts refers to a ruling in August in Washington that overturned the SEC dismissal of an ETF application by Grayscale. A three-judge bench described the SEC’s decision as “arbitrary and capricious because the Commission failed to explain its different treatment of similar products.”

Is a Bitcoin Spot ETF Imminent?

When prodded about why the SEC hadn’t opposed the Washington ruling, Gensler said that the agency respects the rules set forth by Congress and the courts. However, he had a warning for all those excited about the Bitcoin ETF.

This is a field that your viewers should be aware that there’s a lot of noncompliance. And there’s been far too much fraud and bad actors in the crypto field. There’s a lot of noncompliance, not only with the securities laws but other laws around any money laundering and protecting the public against bad actors there.

He added that the crypto spot ETF field is a sector where most investors still don’t have a lot of key information about the projects they intend to invest in. Exchanges, which should protect investors, are busy “commingling and doing things that we do not allow anywhere else in our financial system,” he quipped in a thinly-veiled attack on Binance and FTX.