While a number of digital asset bills have been passed this year, the first half of Peirce’s speech focused on the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETP in the United States, which she mentioned is the question she gets asked about most. While spot ETPs have successfully launched in other regions such as Europe and Canada — which saw 1 billion Canadian dollars in assets under management a month after its launch in 2022 — the SEC has continued to push back on this offering.
Unfortunately, Peirce remarked that she still “has no idea” when the SEC would approve a spot Bitcoin ETP, noting that “the Commission has added crypto-specific hurdles to what used to be fairly straightforward processes for approving these pooled investment vehicles.” Moreover, while Peirce is aware that the Commission’s resistance to a spot Bitcoin product is difficult to understand, she noted that the Commission has “determined to subject anything related to Bitcoin.”
the Regulation is currently being discussed and the answer is slowly approaching the light
Indeed, while the U.S. crypto ecosystem continues to push forward, industry experts are still left pondering whether a spot Bitcoin ETP will soon be approved. Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart, an exchange-traded fund (EFT) analyst for Bloomberg, recently said that if crypto platforms fall under the SEC’s regulatory framework, a spot ETF may occur in mid-2023.
However, the bipartisan crypto bill, also known as the “Responsible Financial Innovation Act” that was introduced in the United States Senate on June 7, 2022, has yet to determine if the SEC or CFTC will be responsible for the allocation of digital assets.
Regardless, the push for a spot Bitcoin ETP remains a strong-willed battle, especially for digital asset management firms like Grayscale Investments. Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, recently said that the firm is gearing up for a legal fight if Grayscale’s Bitcoin spot ETF is denied by the SEC.
Bitcoin futures ETF in sight?
Shortly after this disclosure, Grayscale hired Donald B. Verrilli, a former U.S. Solicitor General, to join the firm to help push for a Bitcoin spot ETF. During a press conference at Consensus 2022, Verrilli went into detail about his plans to convince the SEC to convert Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust into a spot-based ETF.
According to Verrilli, the SEC’s approval of a Bitcoin futures ETF proved to be consistent with U.S. Security Laws, demonstrating that there was no significant underlying risk or fraud and manipulation. As such, Verrilli believes this created a situation where the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF should be treated similarly to that of a futures ETF.