The United States Securities and Exchanges Commission had set 5 November as a deadline for reviewing remarks about the 9 ETFs that were rejected in August. After this date, they will be announcing their decision about this nine ETFs.
ETFs that were rejected by SEC in August 2018 are:
1- Cboe BZX Exchange’s GraniteShares Bitcoin ETF;
2-Granite Shares Short Bitcoin ETF;
3-NYSE Arca Inc.; Proshares Bitcoin ETF;
4-Proshares Short Bitcoin ETF;
5-NYSE Arca Inc.;
6-Direxion Daily Bitcoin Bear 1X Shares;
7-Direxion Daily Bitcoin 1.25X Bull Shares;
8-Direxion Daily Bitcoin 1.5X Bull Shares;
9-Direxion Daily Bitcoin 2X Bull Shares, and Direxion Daily Bitcoin 2X Bear Shares.
The main concern SEC has rejected the nine ETFs was the possibility of the creation of fraud schemes and market manipulation. The NYSE Arca Inc. Bitcoin ETF had gotten 13 reviews, and the majority of the reviews were for rejection. The reviews pointed to the pump and dump events organized on Telegram groups, the market manipulation and the Ponzi schemes quoting some examples like BitConnect.
The next day SEC withdrew their announcement saying that they will review the “Division’s actions pursuant to the delegated authority” Stating:
“On October 4, 2018, the Commission issued an Order Scheduling of Statements on Review, setting November 5, 2018, as the date by which any party or other person may file a statement in support of, or in opposition to, the action by the Division pursuant to delegated authority”
The crypto community is anxiously waiting for the ETF decision, with many thinking that an ETF approval by SEC will start a bull run, and many others thinking that this will have a negative effect. Those who see ETFs as a negative thing have a theory, that this will increase artificially the liquidity making it a tool to suppress the price, since the exchanges will not need to hold any real cryptocurrency, but will be very effective shorting cryptocurrencies.
Reggie Brown, otherwise known as Godfather of ETF, said that he doesn’t see the SEC approving the Bitcoin ETF at any point in the near future. As indicated by Business Insider, amid a speech in the Financial Markets Quality Conference at Georgetown University’s he said that the Bitcoin ETF won’t be approved”no time soon”. He included:
“It’s very difficult for the Commission to wrap their heads around a positive approval because there’s no data yet… the markets just aren’t here.”
What do you think about ETFs? Will it help cryptocurrency go mainstream or it will suppress the price leaving the crypto world for a long time in a bear market?
Feel free to post your opinion in the comments below.