The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its final verdict on the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) that is backed by investment firm Wilshire Phoenix. The rule change proposal is currently being evaluated.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) again delayed its decision about Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposed by New York-based investment-management firm Wilshire Phoenix.
As per the public filing, SEC needs to assess the proposed rule change to allow NYSE Arca in order to deal with shares of Wilshire Phoenix’s Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust. Arca first started seeking regulatory approval from the SEC for a different type of stablecoin. Dubbed as the Arca UST Coins – the stablecoin will represent the shares of a bond fund. Also, the tokenization of the shares will occur in the form of ERC20 compatible tokens recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.
However, this ETF would give investors possibilities to find their ways to both Bitcoin and U.S. Treasury bonds. The SEC (as usual) listed a number of questions for the masses, including questions about individuals’ thoughts of the suggestion that the CME Bitcoin reference rate is not susceptible to manipulation.
The SEC began taking comments on the proposal in June, and it seems that only six individuals submitted responses equally supporting or opposing to a Bitcoin ETF establishment.
What is special about Wilshire’s proposal is that, unlike others, it has trust plans to hold positions in Bitcoin, short-term Treasury bills, and US dollars. The company explained this will much reduce overall inconsistency and provide investors to get faster to Bitcoin “in a manner that is more efficient, convenient and less volatile than purchasing stand-alone Bitcoin.”
In that way, it will be not that similar to an ETF and will be more acting as the private placement investments which are sold to accredited investors to enable them to become open to cryptos in traditional banking accounts.
The SEC is now looking out to a final deadline of its decision whether to approve or disapprove a Bitcoin ETF proposed by Bitwise Asset Management.
Bitwises’s Co-Founder and CEO, Hunter Horsley, previously described cryptocurrencies as an asset class that is in their “most viable” state ever. He also added that “considering the market conditions, a crypto-linked ETF could be the logical next step”.
The company has written a lot of reports that are focusing on convincing SEC that the Bitcoin market has already big and secure enough in order to support such a product. However, it doesn’t seem regulators are convinced. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton recently said:
“While it’s true that the Bitcoin market has made steps to mature, there is still work to be done before a Bitcoin ETF can be approved.”
VanEck and SolidX, are also in wait of SEC’s decision that should happen around mid-October date, and while they pulled out their joint Bitcoin ETF proposal earlier this month they, launched a limited version of its Bitcoin ETF several weeks ago.
As for the Wilshire Phoenix proposal, the SEC has a legally mandated 35 days from now to make a decision.
