Spot ETFs approved by SEC
But the approval process was a dog's dinner
I was in bed last night watching the bitcoin price climb by around 2.5% on the day…so I knew something was up. I had a look at CoinTelegraph’s Twitter feed. And there it was. The SEC had approved a bunch of spot Bitcoin ETFs (exchange traded products).
Now this development has been hotly anticipated by the bitcoin community. Clearly, the development means that there’s potentially a hike in the bitcoin price - as more Mom and Pop investors pile in to retail investment products pegged to bitcoin. There’s a limited supply of coins so the market is going to expand rapidly. Hence the recent bitcoin bull market. And the ‘halving’ event - which will mean there’s less dosh for bitcoin miners hashing fresh coins (likely to happen in under 100 days) - thereby further tightening supply just as the Fed is about to start running the dollar printing presses at full-tilt again.
However, the same story was repeated the previous evening when, bizarrely, the SEC twitter account was hacked and and a faux-approval was ‘leaked’. Or something. All a bit perplexing.
And this morning the bitcoin trades are making public some of the moaning and recriminations and back-biting within the SEC about the approvals process. Coin Telegraph is saying that “SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda published a statement revealing “strong concerns” with three aspects of the approval order.”
But that ends-up being something of a damp firework on Uyeda’s part as he concludes: “I have independent reasons for concluding that the applications satisfy the standards for approval set forth in the Exchange Act…I support the issuance of the Approval Order despite my objections to the legal analysis set forth in that order”. Hmm.
But perhaps some of this - and general jitters - explains the fall-back in the price this morning again. It’s like groundhog day (the same thing happened after the hacked/dodgy approval announcement).
But the fact remains that the approvals are significant. Bitcoin is now positioned more strongly than it has ever been in terms of its importance in the global securities market. There’s a reckoning coming. And the asset managers community is getting the message.
This morning I had a chat with a colleague from that community. His take: the spot ETF approvals clearly give first mover advantage to US funds. London, as the world’s biggest capital market needs to get its act together. I hope to be able to discuss some of these issues here on this Bitcoin Belfast substack. So be sure to subscribe.