For the past six months, nearly a dozen providers have been awaiting the green light from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch the first spot-based Bitcoin ETF. For years, the agency has refused to approve such products, always with seemingly false reasons. However, a clear court decision in the case of Grayscale against the SEC in August 2023 forced the regulator to revise its interpretation of ETFs.

Despite this, the agency used every trick in the book to delay the decision as much as possible. The SEC postponed approval three times until this Wednesday, when the final deadline was reached. Due to the court decision, the agency had no choice but to approve the spot Bitcoin ETFs.

The controversial and political nature of this dispute was underscored by the statements of the five SEC commissioners following the approval. Under the leadership of Chairman Gary Gensler, the Democratic commissioners once again expressed strong criticism of the crypto sector. They argued that Bitcoin is purely a speculative investment vehicle and has no intrinsic value.

In contrast, Republican commissioners Mark Uyeda and Hester Peirce countered that the agency had alienated the sector with the highest level of harassment. Ultimately, the SEC approved the spot Bitcoin ETFs with a vote of three to two, with Gensler casting the decisive “yes” for the majority.

This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)

Information	Details
Geography	North America
Countries	🇺🇸
Sentiment	neutral
Relevance Score	1
People	Hester Peirce, Gary Gensler, Mark Uyeda
Companies	Grayscale, US-Börsenaufsicht (SEC)
Currencies	Bitcoin
Securities	None