The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected the last remaining proposal for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The proposal came from Wilshire Phoenix and NYSE Arca, and was looking to list a fund mixing Bitcoin and short-term U.S. Treasuries.
According to Bloomberg, the regulator rejected the application as it believes concerns associated with potential price manipulation, custody, and liquidity haven’t been properly addressed. The regulator said:
The Commission concludes that NYSE Arca has not established that the relevant Bitcoin market possesses a resistance to manipulation that is unique beyond that of traditional security or commodity markets such that it is inherently resistant to manipulation.
The regulator has rejected various Bitcoin ETF proposals over time because of these concerns. Notably, in a dissenting statement, Commissioner Hester Peirce – a proponent of cryptocurrency-related products – revealed she disapproved of the rejection, and that it leads her to conclude the agency is “unwilling to approve” the listing of products that would “provide access to the market for Bitcoin.”
Commissioner Hester Peirce added that “no filing will meet the ever-shifting standards that this Commission insists on applying to Bitcoin-related products—and only to Bitcoin-related products.”
Wilshire’s proposal was mixing Bitcoin with Treasuries in an attempt to cushion the volatility associated with the flagship cryptocurrency. The T-bills came in response to previous SEC rejections, as the fund was set to automatically rebalance itself in response to BTC’s volatility. The firm first applied for the ETF last summer
Featured image via Pixabay.
