Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), thinks a Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) could be approved if financial institutions can prove that such a product complies with Bitcoin’s terms. -futures would mimic market.
No US Bitcoin spot ETF filing has ever been approved to date, despite submissions from Grayscale, VanEck and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, although the SEC did green light the launch of the first Bitcoin futures ETFs in October 2021.
Clayton served as chairman of the SEC from 2017-2020. Into a new one interview with CNBC, he outlined why he believed the SEC first approved those BTC futures ETFs instead of spot products.
“I think when the SEC approved the futures-based ETF, they said, ‘Let’s look at the futures market, we see the oversight, we see the protection in that market for the end investor that’s adequate. We don’t see that on the spot market, so we’re going to make that distinction.’
I think what the institutions are claiming is that those differences have disappeared and the spot product is actually less dragging now, more efficient for the investor. So if there’s not that delta in regulation, not that delta in what I can do [call] efficacy, the spot must be approved. That is the discussion that is going on right now.”
Clayton says that if financial institutions can prove those points, they will likely be successful in launching a BTC spot ETF.
“What I would say is, if they are right that you can demonstrate that the spot market has comparable effectiveness to the futures market, then it would be hard to resist the approval of a Bitcoin ETF.”
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