Former SEC Chair Says Spot Bitcoin ETF Approval Is ‘Hard To Resist’

By Kevin • July 11, 2023 9:40 pm • Comments

The former SEC Chairman, Jay Clayton, recently mentioned in a CNBC interview that the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF would be “hard to resist”.

Clayton goes on to mention that the crypto industry has progressed tremendously over the past 10 years and has gathered a lot of institutional investment.

Typically, these insitutions would only put their reputation on the line if they were fairly confident in the trajectory of a particular asset of industry.

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The fact that the majority of the largest institutions are jumping in is a major bullish signal and is putting a lot of pressure to provide more efficiency when it comes to accessing the digital assets market.

The approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, similar to the future based ETFs which have already been approved, seems inevitable at this point.

U.today reports:

On the subject of Bitcoin ETFs, Clayton said he thought it would be “hard to resist” approving a Bitcoin ETF if regulatory safeguards were in place, mirroring those in the futures market.

“What the institutions are arguing is those distinctions have gone away and now the spot product is less drag, more efficient for the investors,” he explained.

However, Clayton warned that these changes may not happen rapidly, noting the necessary thoroughness of the regulatory process.

Clayton, as the then chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is mostly known for filing a lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc., its co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse in December 2020.

However, he has since warmed up to crypto by taking an advisory role at crypto firm Fireblocks.

The approval of a spot ETF is expected by many speculators to bring more institutional capital into the market as it allows for exposure to the crypto industry without directly dealing with digital assets.

So far, the SEC has yet to approve any spot Bitcoin ETF as it had previously claimed that the price of the asset was heavily manipulated.

However, the perspective is now changing and the fact that there is a “surveillance-sharing agreement” that is in discussion indicates that the SEC may see this as a solution to the manipulation concerns.

Coinbase was selected as the exchange that would participate in this surveillance agreement which was also very positive for the exchange.

DeCrypt.co concludes:

BlackRock last week applied again to the SEC with a new proposal finalizing a surveillance agreement with Coinbase, America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Investors want access to such a spot Bitcoin ETF because it would allow them to get involved with Bitcoin without having to deal with the custody of the asset, according to experts.

The SEC last month approved America’s first first leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF—the Volatility Shares 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX).

It allows investors to buy shares that bet on the future price of Bitcoin.

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