Earlier this week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected two applications for bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). One of the companies, Grayscale Investments, responded by filing a lawsuit against the agency. But not everyone is convinced that it will work.
“The SEC rejecting both Bitwise and Grayscale’s GBTC spot bitcoin ETF applications is not at all surprising because it follows the same precedent that other asset managers have passed,” Leah Wald, CEO of Valkyrie Investments, said in a statement. Twitter thread† “Suing the SEC is unlikely to succeed.”
Wald’s Nashville-based digital asset investment firm has more than $1 billion in assets under management. Valkyrie is also home to one of the SEC-approved bitcoin futures ETFs, Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), which was approved last year.
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In the past, SEC Chair Gary Gensler has said that crypto exchanges must register with the regulator just like traditional stock exchanges. While the agency has approved a handful of long- and short-exposure bitcoin futures ETFs, it has rejected every spot bitcoin ETF applied to date.
The SEC has imposed huge fees on investors “for no legitimate reason,” Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey, tweeted on Friday.