Crypto news: the markets are now anxiously awaiting the official announcement of the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETF, especially that of BlackRock.
In fact, Blackrock itself has explained the reasons why the SEC should approve in particular its request to issue an ETF also on spot ETH, and these reasons also apply to its request regarding an ETF on spot BTC.
Except that the approval of the latter is expected at the beginning of January, while for ETFs on spot ETH it will presumably take months yet.
Crypto news: the reasons for the yes for BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF
BlackRock is the sponsor of this initiative, so much so that the official name of the derivative is iShares Ethereum Trust. The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC will operationally put the ETF shares on the market.
The latter presented a statement to the SEC in which it states that the approval of an ETF on spot ETH would be “a major win for the protection of US investors” in the crypto sector.
Indeed, they specified that they believe that the lack of a similar derivative product exposes the assets of US investors to significant risk, because in this way they would be forced to find alternative exposure through generally riskier products.
They probably refer precisely to crypto exchanges which, as the FTX case demonstrates, are decidedly more at risk.
It should be noted that this reasoning also implies that on the US market there is a way for US investors to invest in cryptocurrencies, but only by using high-risk products.
However, we must not forget that ETFs already exist, even if they are based on futures contracts and not on the real underlying (ETH).
Furthermore, they also state that the CME (Chicago Stock Exchange) ETH futures market represents a regulated market of significant size, and that BlackRock’s proposal should therefore be approved.
The precedent
Nasdaq also implicitly cites the recent ruling that condemned the SEC for refusing to approve a similar request from Grayscale on BTC.
In fact, the agency has always justified its curious attitude of approving ETH on crypto futures but not spot ones by referring to legal quibbles regarding the differences between the two underlyings.
Nasdaq, however, states that these differences are not significant in the context regarding ETH.
The judge who issued the ruling in favor of Grayscale had pointed out that the SEC itself had failed to credibly explain why it considered these differences significant, therefore condemning the agency’s behavior.
With the document just presented, Nasdaq seems to be twisting the knife in the wound, almost as if it wanted to order the SEC not to forget that sentence. At this point it is possible to imagine that in the event of a further failure, Nasdaq and BlackRock could also sue the SEC.
Furthermore, in the document Nasdaq also explicitly adds that the Commission’s approval of ETFs on ETH futures means that it will also have to approve ETPs on spot ETH.
Everyone against the SEC
So right now everyone seems to be against the SEC.
The only ones who persist in wanting to support this approach are some politicians who are unfavorable to cryptocurrencies, but who may not have enough strength to prevent the approval of spot ETFs.
In the face of a court ruling that bluntly affirms that the SEC erred in not approving Grayscale’s request, the SEC’s position appears objectively untenable.
Only political propaganda, which is certainly not made up of truth, can continue to support an objectively wrong position, according to current United States laws.
To this, however, it must be added that in the USA the political propaganda campaign has already begun in view of next year’s presidential elections, so many of the things that US politicians are saying at the moment are just pure propaganda, without any comparison with reality .
According to several experts, the chances of approval of BlackRock’s request by the SEC would be higher than 90%, or even 95%. On the other hand, the company has an average approval rate for these requests of over 99%.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/11/14/positive-news-blackrock-bitcoin-etf/