The SEC is serious about regulating the Bitcoin “market”, it seems. The Security and Exchange Commission has just denied a total of nine Bitcoin ETF applications from several investors, including ProShares, Direxion and GraniteShares.
The rejection of the nine applications by the three candidates was announced one day prior to the deadline (23rd August).
ProShares submitted two applications for Bitcoin ETF and Bitcoin Short ETF, while Direxion submitted a total of five applications and GraniteShares – two.
As reported by CoinTelegraph, the SEC gave one common explanation for why it has rejected the three applicants’ proposals:
“The Commission is disapproving this proposed rule change because, as discussed below, the Exchange has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with the requirements of the Exchange Act Section 6(b)(5), in particular the requirement that a national securities exchange’s rules be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.”
The primary reason why the SEC keeps rejecting the Bitcoin ETF applications is not because of the product itself – bitcoin, or blockchain, but rather because there is, according to the SEC, so much manipulation possible in driving the value of a Bitcoin ETF, that the agency cannot support the “manipulative” market to exist until there is more stable and secure way to do this.
With all these nine applications rejected, nobody knows when there will be a Bitcoin ETF.