The long wait for the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is finally over, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed late Wednesday that it has approved the Bitcoin product. In a website post, the US regulatory top dog stated that it had approved all 11 ETF applications after months of close meetings with the applicants.
“Today, the Commission approved the listing and trading of a number of spot bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) shares,” SEC boss Gary Gensler stated.
Without much ado, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has listed six ETPs for trading. VanEck (with ticker HODL), Ark Invest (ARKB), Fidelity (FBTC), Invesco (BTCO), WisdomTree (BTCW), and Franklin Templeton (EZBC) would go live on the exchange as early as Thursday, CBOE confirmed.
Breakthrough at Last
The approval came after a frenzy on January 9 that saw a fake post by the SEC on its X account stating it had approved the ETF on that day. Following the tweet, Gensler noted that the agency’s X account had been hacked and termed the approval news fake.
Although the link to the SEC’s website stating that it had approved the ETPs was deleted, the US regulator reposted the link, putting to bed rising rumors that a glitch had happened again.
The approval also came with a disclaimer from the SEC, stating that sanctioning its first spot Bitcoin ETF after denying about 20 of them before now doesn’t mean it endorses crypto assets and digital currencies in general by any means. It just showed the agency was law-abiding and respected the court ruling mandating it to sanction Grayscale’s GBTC to spot Bitcoin ETF requests.
Reactions Pour In
Reacting to the approval, Ophelia Synder, the co-founder of crypto custody firm 21Shares, stated that the historical event would take some time before the Bitcoin market began to reap the benefits of the approval.
“That typically takes 90 days, so we’re not even going to see what this actually looks like for at least a quarter. Just because a product’s available to trade on does not actually mean that every adviser in America can buy it,” Synder stated in an interview.
Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, also stated that the significance of the approval cannot be overemphasized. He said the approval was a gateway to mainstream institutional crypto investment and adoption.
Despite remaining unmoved a few moments after the announcement, Bitcoin has joined the party, with the crypto asset moving past $47,000 at press time. Bitcoin dumped to below $45,000 following the announcement but has now regained uptrend momentum.
