The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly set to allow Bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to begin trading. According to Bloomberg, the regulator “isn’t likely to block the products from starting to trade next week.”
Bloomberg’s report cites people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, and points out that, unlike other Bitcoin ETF applicants, proposals by ProShares and Invesco are based on futures contracts and were filed under mutual fund rules that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said provide “significant investor protections.”
A Bitcoin ETF approval in the U.S. would be the culmination of a nearly decade-long campaign to list such a product. Crypto advocates have been looking to list it ever since Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the founder of the Gemini exchange, filed the first Bitcoin ETF application in 2013.
Approval has, for years, been out of the grasp of issuers who have tried a variety of different methods to get a Bitcoin ETF out on the market. The SEC has in the past expressed concern prices could be manipulated in the crypto space and that liquidity may be insufficient.
Bitcoin’s price climbed past $59,000 following reports suggesting that the SEC may approve a Bitcoin futures ETF. Four futures-backed Bitcoin ETFs could enter U.S. exchanges this month if approved.
