SEC Chief anticipates Bitcoin ETFs to be approved soon

Commissioner Robert J Jackson Jr. expressed his optimism in regards to Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) approval during an interview with Congressional Quarterly. It was not supposed to be publicly released until Monday, but Twitter user Drew Hinkes has already published it.

Notably, a number of ETF proposals were submitted to the SEC during 2018, however, none of them got approved so far. According to Jackson Jr., that practice will soon change. One of the major operators, VanEck, engaged in extensive debate with the SEC over its decision, but the longest U.S. shutdown in history that lasted over a month caused the application to be withdrawn, without making a reappearance of it later.

Additionally, Jackson acknowledged the persistence in some of the market’s players. Take Winklevoss twins, for example. After their initial application was rejected in March 2017, they have filed yet again in just a year, July 2018. According to Jackson, SEC fundamentally “erred” with the decision.

Jackson admitted that it’s extremely hard to get SEC’s “approval stamp” on any investment-related funds, but once it’s received – it changes the industry.

“Eventually, do I think someone will satisfy the standards that we’ve laid out there? I hope so, yes, and I think so,”

Jackson stated.

As previously reported, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), has stated that research of cryptocurrencies is among SEC’s top priorities for 2019. There’s a team being formed to issue final regulations, and OCIE will be paying the highest attention to the major crypto-related things, such as the ‘offer and sale, trading, and management of digital assets’.