Timo Lehes, the Managing Director at Swarm Capital, believes the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF because the market is not ready. Lehes shared his sentiments earlier today, noting that the authority appears unwilling to expose consumers to BTC’s spot market because it is still uncomfortable with manipulation in BTC’s market.
According to him, the SEC is concerned with how powerful players can game BTC’s market. He further noted that the regulator’s primary task is investor protection. As such, denying VanEck’s BTC ETF is just the SEC carrying out its job. Siding with the watchdog, Lehes said people cannot accuse the SEC of heavy-handedness for rejecting the spot market BTC ETF application.
Lehes added that,
The combination of crypto assets and spot ETFs brings together two of the biggest innovations in finance in the past 30 years. But it is clear that the regulator thinks the market is not ready for it. SEC chair Gary Gensler has made it abundantly obvious that he favors futures-based contracts over spot price ETFs when it comes to bitcoin and crypto more widely.
The Swarm Capital executive added that crypto can only become successful and sustainable if players in the sector work within the framework the SEC lays out.
SEC cites lack of regulation as the reason for rejecting the ETF
Lehes’ comments come after the SEC denied the VanEck BTC ETF on Friday, citing concerns over fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices in the BTC market. According to the securities regulator, approving the ETF would have introduced the above practices in regulated markets. As such, it acted in a way that protects investors and public interest.
Before this, the watchdog approved the first-ever crypto-related ETF application in the US in the past month. The product in question is ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), which tracks BTC’s future market. As a result of the approval, BTC surged to new heights.
Since the start of November, Bitcoin (BTC/USD) has been trading above $60,000.00 (£44,684.70). This momentum saw the coin set a new ATH at $68,789.63 (£51,230.73) on November 10. With its bulls exhausted, BTC started descending and traded as low at $59,016.34 (£43,952.12) earlier today. At the time of writing, BTC is changing hands at $60,846.45 (£45,315.09), depicting a 5.66% loss over the past 24 hours.
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