Hester Peirce, the most pro-bitcoin SEC commissioner, showed up on the ‘What Bitcoin Did’ podcast at the end of the week. While reluctant to outline a future Bitcoin ETF as sure to happen, she confirmed that it is certainly possible.
Early in July Peirce got popular to the crypto community by her contradiction the commission view, following the denied Winklevoss ETF application. In an announcement where she publicly contradicted the Commission’s view, that Bitcoin was not “ripe enough, respectable enough, or regulated enough to be worthy of our markets.”
Her feeling was that SEC had gone past its jurisdiction evaluating the basic asset, instead of evaluating the market it should trade in.
In the podcast, she reconfirms that the SEC has an explicit mandate, to set up the regulatory structure. She expressed her belief that the SEC will allow the innovation progress with regulatory framework instead of becoming interventionist.
Peirce clarifies that the SEC already has gotten crypto specialists to advise them about the cryptocurrency, who have driven the agency to adopt a cautious strategy. She believes that it is the right thing to go behind those who use “crypto” trying to scam people but she is pushing to make possible for the innovation to grow.
“Just because you are calling something Crypto does not mean you can ignore the rules we have had in place for years… but I do think we also need to be willing to open the doors a little bit wider for innovation.”
She outlined that in spite that all cryptocurrency applications for ETF have been rejected, they are still open.
SEC Relationship with Crypto
Peirce calls attention to that the commissioners have been welcoming remarks from the public, and that this procedure is greatly valuable. The applications are a continuous relationship or discussion, the SEC’s requests following refusal just call attention to issues to address.
Peirce clarifies that many remarks enquire about the when is going to happen the final approval, which is not an easy question to answer. Every proposition is evaluated without anyone else merits, and each is structured in a different way. So when a specific proposition will persuade three of the five commissioners is difficult to state.
In the meantime, this month Switzerland confirmed the first Bitcoin ETP to trade bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin cash and Litecoin on the SIX exchange in Zurich. This is the main stock exchange in Switzerland and the fourth biggest in Europe. So it appears that good signals are launched from Europe and might be a matter of time until they reach the U.S.
Do you think that the Bitcoin ETF will be approved by the end of February which is also the final deadline? Post your opinion in the comments below.