‘The SEC Has to Give its Decision: Yes or No’ to Bitcoin ETF Approval, says Bitwise

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) previously set an Oct. 13 deadline for approving Bitwise Investments’ Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). With Bitcoin’s high volatility this year, its performance in 2019 remained bullish, although falling by over 20% in one week in September. Bitcoin reached its lowest level in July while hitting its high of over $11,000 in June 2019.  

Matt Hougan, managing director and global head of research at Bitwise, is still optimistic about the prospects of getting his firm’s Bitcoin ETF approved. Hougan explained:  

“Yes, we submitted a lot of research to the SEC and met with them multiple times. Just the evolution of the Bitcoin market is from night to day, and that’s why I think we’re closer than we have ever been before to getting a Bitcoin ETF approved.”  

‘Custody has solved our problem in crypto’ 

Hougan mentioned the role of custody in the development of Bitcoin, “I’d say custody has really solved our problem in crypto right now. There are a large number of regulated, insured custodians with hundreds of millions of dollars of insurance in place.”  

Hougan believes that the issue of market surveillance and market quality are areas people are going to focus on. The investment firm has done a lot of research on where the real nature of the Bitcoin market is. “People’s views of Bitcoin are often anchored a few years ago when it was a wild west.”   

Extended research by the firm has shown that the market is truly efficient. The key is the growth of the regulated growth of the CME Bitcoin futures market, which is trading more than $200 million a day, which is around 20-30% of the Bitcoin spot market. This is a significant indicator because the SEC stated that “if there is a large, significant regulated derivatives market trading side-by-side with the Bitcoin spot market, that can solve the problem of market surveillance,” explained Hougan.   

One of the most exciting wealth generation opportunities  

“The opportunity that’s been taking place in crypto, Bitcoin, and blockchain today is one of the most exciting wealth generation opportunities in the world. You know that because Bitcoin is the single best performing asset over the last five years up about 2000%.”  

Hougan explained that if the Bitcoin ETF is approved, users will have “safe, simple, secure” access to the wealth generation taking place in Bitcoin and crypto.   

What are the alternatives for the SEC?  

Hougan added, “sometime before Monday, the SEC has to give its decision: yes or no. They have no more ways to postpone it at this point. We will hear clearly between now and Monday what they think, and then, depending on what we hear, we’ll go forward from there. But it should be a very exciting week.   

Bitwise expects the SEC to provide detailed guidance on which questions they think have been successfully answered, and which ones, if any, remain. The firm will then understand how close they are to the “goal line” if they are “all the way in” or “a few yards outside.”