After consistent rejections of a bitcoin exchange traded fund by U.S. regulators, cryptocurrency market observers are turning to 2019 as the time when an ETF based on the largest digital currency will be approved. Pinning down an approximate date for that approval, however, remains elusive.
Last month, nine Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications got the thumbs down from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, preventing the digital currency from gaining more acceptance from investors who are wary of the unregulated exchanges of cryptocurrencies. The SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets rejected applications from investment firms ProShares, Direxion and GraniteShares.
Other bitcoin ETF efforts have also seen multiple rejections.
The SEC stated, “Among other things, the Exchange has offered no record evidence to demonstrate that bitcoin futures markets are ‘markets of significant size.’ That failure is critical because, as explained below, the Exchange has failed to establish that other means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices will be sufficient, and therefore surveillance-sharing with a regulated market of significant size related to bitcoin is necessary.”
Turning To Next Year for Bitcoin
The SEC recently postponed their decision on a bitcoin ETF until late September. The ETF filing by investment firm VanEck and blockchain technology company SolidX could help reticent investors adopt Bitcoin as a legitimate investment opportunity if approved.
“However, considering the details of the VanEck/SolidX ETF proposal for which SEC has set a review date of September, the duo (Michael Graham CFA and Scott Suh of US Equity Research) expects another shift in the deadline, hence suggesting a more realistic ETF approval date to be sometime in 2019,” reports CCN.
Related: What Will it Take for a Bitcoin ETF to be Approved?
Graham and Suh expect it will be 2019 before any bitcoin ETFs are approved, but the research does not estimate a time frame for such approvals.
“However, the most recent rejection by SEC of the second proposal by the Winklevoss twins is seen to have dampened expectations. In their opinion, this makes an ETF approval in 2018 highly unlikely,” according to CCN.
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