One Bitcoin (BTC) exchange traded fund (ETF), it is the ideal way for many investors to invest in bitcoin. While several bitcoin ETFs already exist in the world, the United States is still lagging behind in this area. None of the various BTC ETF applications have been approved by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) to date. Now finance giant Fidelity is putting extra pressure on the regulator.
From a recently published document turns out that the financial services company has had a meeting with the SEC. A number of high-ranking Fidelity board members were present. Kyle Murray, vice president of the Chicago CBOE exchange was also there. Together they tried to substantiate why a bitcoin ETF should be approved.
The main reason is that the bitcoin market has matured. Besides the fact that the cryptocurrency has a market capitalization of close to $1 trillion, the trading volume and thus liquidity has also increased significantly in recent times. In short, the risks that the SEC resorted to in previous rejections, such as market manipulation, have largely been resolved.
It is also mentioned that bitcoin ETFs have been approved in the rest of the world. These funds have never faced any problems until now. For example, there is the popular Canadian stock exchange fund and a similar fund was recently approved in France.
Whether the SEC is convinced by Fidelity’s presentation remains to be seen. An approval of a US bitcoin ETF would be good news. It opens the doors for large pension funds, institutional investors, but also retail investors who prefer not to own the bitcoins themselves. This would make investing in bitcoin easier and safer for them.
On March 1, 2021, a proposal to amend the trading rules was submitted to the SEC by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) that would allow bitcoin ETFs to become possible. The SEC postponed its decision on this proposal a few days ago.