The Securities and Exchange Commission postponed a ruling on a bid to launch the highly anticipated Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust exchange traded fund, turning to additional public feedback on the proposal before making a final decision.
The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF (BATS: COIN), which is sponsored by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, will continue to jump through regulatory hurdles as the SEC requested for additional comments from the public over the stability of bitcoins, the manner in which the trust will value holdings and any potential conflicts of interest between the custodian and bitcoin exchange Gemini, which is also owned by the Winklevoss twins, reports Michael del Castillo for CoinDesk.
“The Commission requests that interested persons provide written submissions of their views, data, and arguments with respect to the issues identified above, as well as any other concerns they may have with the proposal,” SEC deputy secretary Robert Erret said in a note.
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Commentators will have 21 days from the October 12 SEC note to formally renter their submissions, and rebuttals can be filed 35 days from that time.
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, or cryptocurrency, based on a peer-to-peer network and can be exchanged through computers internationally without a financial intermediary. The system was first introduced by an unidentified programmer or group under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.
The Winklevoss brothers have introduced the bitcoin index, or so-called Winkdex, which will also be used to price the value of assets held by the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust. The proposed COIN ETF is designed to track a basket of shares tied to the digital currency, which has experienced volatile pricing.
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Bitcoin currently trades at around $639.5, or up 68.7% over the past year. Bitcoin started to gain widespread attention in late 2013 after surging above $1,100.
For more information on the cryptocurrency, visit our bitcoin category.