The long-awaited launch of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States has finally taken place. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved 11 products for listing and trading on several national exchanges, marking a significant step towards legitimizing the crypto asset class. This journey began a decade ago, with many industry participants laying the groundwork for this decision.
The first application for a spot Bitcoin ETF was made in 2013 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, co-founders of the crypto exchange Gemini. In the same year, Grayscale Investments launched its Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), an open-ended private Bitcoin trust. However, the SEC rejected the Winklevoss twins’ application in 2017, citing the immaturity of bitcoin markets. Grayscale also withdrew its application to convert GBTC into a spot Bitcoin ETF, citing an underdeveloped regulatory environment.
In 2018, the Winklevoss brothers filed a second application for a Bitcoin ETF, which was also rejected by the SEC due to concerns about market manipulation. Two years later, Grayscale transformed GBTC into an SEC-reporting entity, and asset manager VanEck filed a proposal with the SEC to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. However, the SEC rejected VanEck’s proposal, and instead approved the first U.S. futures Bitcoin ETF.
By 2022, the SEC had rejected applications from several asset managers, including SkyBridge, Fidelity, Bitwise, and Grayscale. Grayscale took the SEC to court over its decision, and in 2023, a federal appeals judge ordered the SEC to reevaluate the application.
Before the Grayscale ruling, asset managers like Ark Invest, BlackRock, Fidelity, and Invesco had filed applications with the SEC to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC’s decision not to appeal the court’s ruling increased the likelihood of these applications being approved. However, a tweet from the SEC’s compromised account falsely announced the approval of all applications, which was quickly debunked by SEC chair Gary Gensler.
Finally, on January 10, the SEC approved the spot Bitcoin ETFs. By the next day, the 11 ETFs started trading on several securities exchanges, amassing $4 billion in volumes with 700,000 trades.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | North America |
| Countries | 🇺🇸 |
| Sentiment | neutral |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Gary Gensler, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, Jay Clinton |
| Companies | VanEck, Invesco, Binance Futures, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ark Invest, Gemini, SkyBridge, Fidelity, BlackRock, Grayscale Investments, Bitwise |
| Currencies | Bitcoin |
| Securities | None |
