The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) maintained its perfect record for rejecting applications for spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Friday, when it disapproved of a rule change to allow the hedge fund focused in the cryptocurrency One River Digital offered the One River Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Trust on the New York Stock Exchange Arca. The decision comes a bit earlier than anticipated, as the agency had extended the original deadline to June 2 to give more time for consideration.
The commission wrote that, in considering One River’s proposed rule change, it applied “the same standard used in its orders considering previous proposals to list bitcoin-based commodity trusts.” Specifically, the proposed rule change did not meet the SEC’s standards for fraud prevention. The SEC further clarified:
“[…] disapproval of this proposed rule change is not based on an assessment of whether bitcoin, or blockchain technology more generally, has utility or value as an innovation or an investment.”
One River Digital was created in 2020 by Eric Peters, founder of One River Asset Management, and apparently backed by billionaire Alan Howard, co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management.
Among the financial organizations that have tried and failed to receive SEC blessings on digital asset-based ETFs this year are Fidelity Investments, New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) and Global X, as well as Skybridge Capital.
Grayscale has been more militant in its efforts to receive approval for a spot-traded Bitcoin ETF. The digital asset manager has reached threatening to file a lawsuit against the SEC if your application is denied, and recently has launched a campaign to garner support from the public at your request.
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