The U.S. SEC Evaluates Potential VanEck SolidX Bitcoin ETF, Seeks Comments as Deciding Factor

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made an announcement on Thursday, September 20, that it got VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust’s proposal for a potential exchange-traded fund (ETF). As per the proposal itself, the trust wants to list and trade its shares, SolidX Bitcoin Shares – each representing a “fractional undivided beneficial interest in the Trust’s net assets”.

The published document, which was put together by secretary, Brent J. Fields, confirmed that the Commission has received the proposal and has since been weighing in on the matter to conclude whether the ETF will be approved or disapproved.

The proposal was supposedly filed by Cboe BZX Exchange, and if everything results in their favor, then the exchange will finally be able to initiate a Bitcoin ETF, which was managed primarily by global investment firm, VanEck and a crypto startup dubbed, SolidX.

Whether the SEC plans to wave a green flag in favor of the Bitcoin ETF, relies solely on comments. In particular, the Commission is currently “seeking and encouraging interested persons to provide comments on the proposed rule change [i.e. ETF].” Some of the comments that the Commission is expecting revolves around the affirmations made by the parties involved in submitting the proposal.

More specifically, the SEC wants to see how commenters’ view some of the following areas: the statements made in terms of 1) bitcoin being “arguably less susceptible to manipulation”, 2) OTC desks being a superior “measure of the market than any other exchange-specific reference price”, 3) overall OTC bitcoin liquidity and 4) to what extent said OTC should comply by regulation to name a few.

As of Wednesday, September 19, the SEC supposedly received over 1,400 letters expressing views on the proposed Bitcoin ETF, which will all be evaluated prior to arriving to a conclusion.

To have a complete insight on the matters at hand, read what the SEC had to say here: https://www.sec.gov/rules/sro/cboebzx/2018/34-84231.pdf

What are your thoughts on the proposed ETF? Do you think SEC will disapprove the idea of a crypto-backed ETF yet again? Let us know in the comments below!

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