Gary Gensler, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, has just denounced the approval of the much-anticipated spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). A few minutes earlier, the agency’s official X (formerly Twitter) account falsely announced the approval of the Bitcoin-backed investment vehicle before deleting the post.
Gensler Reveals X Account Was Compromised
Addressing the matter, Gensler noted that the financial agency’s X account was compromised, leading to the false announcement. He emphasized that the SEC has not endorsed spot Bitcoin ETF applications.
The @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) January 9, 2024
Bitcoin’s price undoubtedly jumped on the falsified approval news. According to the price tracking platform CoinStats, BTC soared to as high as $47,800 before dropping within 15 minutes. Presently, the asset has decreased to a trading price of $45,600.
Source: CoinStats
Market experts believe that the actual approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF will push BTC’s price to a tremendous height.
Will the SEC Approve the ETF Product on January 10?
Over the past few years, several financial institutions have applied for a spot Bitcoin ETF with the U.S. SEC, an investment vehicle that will enable American investors to invest in Bitcoin while benefiting from the security common to traditional finance (TradFi) companies. The fight for approval was especially revived last year by almost a dozen applicants. However, the agency has not given the green light.
The SEC has until January 10th to either approve or decline at least one of the applications. Jan van Eck, the CEO of VanEck (one of the applicants), expressed his enthusiasm about the SEC’s approval, stating on CNBC’s ETF Edge that the financial product will begin trading on January 11th.
“All the fees came out this morning because they’re all getting ready to basically list on Thursday […] that’s not been filtered out through all the news,” he said.
As the VanEck boss explained, several applicants like BlackRock and Ark Invest are positioning themselves to attract the most users by downsizing their fees.
