The Chamber of Digital Commerce, established to promote the acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies, has criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for depriving U.S. investors to have access to a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In a statement, the Chamber of Digital Commerce said, “The time has come for U.S. investors to have access to a bitcoin ETF that directly holds bitcoin (BTC).”
Citing the Crypto Conundrum report – the object of which is to identify some of the most significant areas in which regulators and/or the crypto community believe a policy response is required and the work currently being done to address those issues – the Chamber of Digital Commerce pointed out “the SEC’s increasingly unjustifiable unwillingness to approve spot bitcoin ETF.”
The report demonstrates that the SEC has imposed regulatory hurdles unique only to bitcoin on applicants for a Bitcoin ETF, observed the association. “And while issuers and other industry participants have addressed and mitigated the concerns identified in the SEC’s denials, it continues to arbitrarily reject every application.”
U.S. Retail Investors Limited To Direct Bitcoin Investments
The association has blamed the SEC for denying U.S. retail investors access to regulated bitcoin products and keeping them limited to direct bitcoin investments, “which don’t provide the investor protections that come with typical financial advisor relationships and the SEC’s registration and disclosure framework.”
Meanwhile, SEC has also been criticized for its approach toward crypto companies and crypto assets, as the SEC’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit has lodged some 200 lawsuits with at least 80 fraud investigations since 2017.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler also received flak for saying there is no reason to treat the crypto market differently from the rest of the capital markets just because it uses a different technology.
The Chamber of Digital Commerce concluded that the SEC’s ongoing denials are based not on the enumerated concerns but, instead, reflect a larger political agenda to obtain the ability to regulate the exchanges and platforms on which bitcoin trades – an authority not currently vested with the SEC.
On the Flipside
- ProShares Short Bitcoin ETF (BITI) is the only ETF approved by the U.S. SEC with the goal of trading the inverse of Bitcoin’s daily performance. s
Why You Should Care
SEC’s approach towards crypto overall has been largely judged to be hostile.
Read more about SEC’s approach to crypto:
SEC Slammed for 200 Lawsuits Against Crypto Assets Since 2017
SEC Chair Gary Gensler to Testify in Front of U.S. Senate Banking Committee
Mark Cuban Criticizes SEC’s Approach to Crypto Regulation