UPDATED 22:28 EDT / JANUARY 09 2018

EMERGING TECH

Bitcoin ETF applications withdrawn following SEC advice

Attempts to bring bitcoin exchange-traded funds to market have taken a blow as several companies withdrew their applications following feedback from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Companies that have withdrawn their applications include Direxion Shares ETF Trust, Exchange Listed Funds Trust and ProShares Trust, with all three citing discussions with the SEC as spurring their decisions.

“On a call with [SEC] Staff on Jan 5, 2018, the staff expressed concerns regarding the liquidity and valuation of the underlying instruments in which the Fund intends to primarily invest and requested that the Trust withdraw the Amendment until such time as these concerns are resolved,” Angela Brickl from Direxion wrote in the withdrawal letter to the SEC. “In response to the Staff’s request, the Trust respectfully requests withdrawal of the Amendment.”

A letter from ProShares expressed the same sentiment, noting that “the request for withdrawal is being made in response to a request from [SEC] Staff” as the regulator “expressed concerns regarding the liquidity and valuation of the underlying instruments.”

Exactly what those concerns are is not hard to elaborate on. The SEC is on record as having expressed them before when rejecting applications the SolidX Bitcoin ETF, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF and the Grayscale Bitcoin Investment Trust in 2017. The SEC said at the time that any tradable good must be on a national securities exchange “designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices and to protect investors and the public interest.”

The newly withdrawn ETF applications were looking to trade in bitcoin futures on the Cboe Global Markets exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, not bitcoin itself as the ETFs rejected in 2017 were. Bit the fact that bitcoin futures are linked to bitcoin’s price directly ties into the “liquidity and valuation of the underlying instruments” on a nationally regulated exchange. The bitcoin futures themselves have also come into question, with investors facing hefty losses.

The news did nothing to assist bitcoin in trading Tuesday. The cryptocurrency was still vacillating in the same price range it has since Dec. 23. Bitcoin did drop somewhat from yesterday, to $14,315.09 as of 10:15 p.m. EST, although that drop may be more closely related to claims China is looking to ban bitcoin mining.

Image: fdecomite/Flickr

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