SEC rejects VanEck’s spot BTC ETF application, yet again

ambcrypto.com:

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (U.S. SEC) yesterday rejected the investment manager VanEck’s application to create a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP), reported Reuters.

The SEC, in essence, rejected a change that would have allowed VanEck to establish the Bitcoin trust.

Commissioners Mark Uyeda and Hester Peirce immediately issued a statement criticizing the Commission’s decision not to approve the listing and trading of VanEck’s product.

The SEC opined that since there is no underlying regulated market, VanEck does not have a comprehensive surveillance-sharing agreement with a regulated market of significant size related to spot Bitcoin.

According to the commissioners, the SEC had previously not required any connection between the spot and futures markets for other commodity-based ETPs.

“It is also clear that the Commission is using a uniquely burdensome definition of ‘significant’ in its analyses of spot Bitcoin ETP filings,” read the letter. The SEC is legally obligated to explain changes to its policy for approving commodity-based ETPs, they added.

VanEck has a financial product that is linked to Bitcoin futures. It was in 2017 that VanEck began seeking approval for the product. For months, the SEC delayed making a decision on the company’s current, and third, application for a spot ETP.

However, it is not the first time that the SEC has rejected proposals for a Bitcoin spot ETP.

When Cboe BZX Exchange applied to the SEC last month to list Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust, the request was denied. Following that, the regulatory body issued a letter outlining its reasons for rejecting the proposal.

The exchange did not meet its responsibility of demonstrating that the fund is designed to prevent