“We Squandered a Decade of Opportunities To Do Our Job,” SEC Commisioner Says

cryptonews.com:

The Commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hester Peirce, seemed to express remorse over the federal agency’s handling of spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in a recent interview.

“We squandered a decade of opportunities to do our job,” Peircce told Coinage’s Zack Guzmán. “If we had applied the standard we use for other commodity-based ETPs, we could have approved these products years ago, but we refused to do so until a court called our bluff.” When asked by Guzmán if another court case is going to have to happen in order to get Ethereum ETFs approved, Peirce rejected the notion. “That’s not how we’re going to do our approvals,” Peirce told Guzmán. “We shouldn’t need a court to tell us that our approach is ‘arbitrary and capricious’ in order for us to get it right.”

The Commissioner’s comments come nearly two weeks after the SEC approved several spot Bitcoin ETFs, ending a years-long attempt at approval. However, not everyone seemed to share in Peirce’s candor regarding the matter. “While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot Bitcoin ETP shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement shortly following the federal agency’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs. “Investors should remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto.” Gensler has faced wide-ranging scrutiny for his handling of spot Bitcoin ETF approvals, particularly in regards to a hack on SEC’s X account 24 hours prior that resulted in an unauthorized party creating a fraudulent post claiming the federal agency had already approved a number of the aforementioned ETFs. On Monday, the SEC announced that the hack was