The US Securities and Exchange Commissin (SEC) has postponed its decision regarding Cathie Wood‘s spot Bitcoin ETF application.
The US SEC recently confirmed that it will be delaying its decision on whether to greenlight the Cathie Wood-backed Ark Investment Management’s (ARK) spot bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund. This, according to a filing by the regulator shared on Friday (August 11, 2023).
The SEC is now looking for public comment regarding the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF application. The agency decided to push back the decision date by a few weeks to even months from now. It was previously expected to announce a decision by August 13, 2023.
The regulatory agency is known for rejecting many different applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs, which are publicly traded investment instruments that are directly tracking the BTC price.
As first reported by Reuters, the SEC cited an inadequate level of trading surveillance which may lead to the underlying spot market being susceptible to fraudulent activities as well as potential market manipulation.
However, futures-based Bitcoin ETFs which track the price of BTC futures contracts have been permitted by regulators for the past couple years.
Growing interest from large financial services providers has done a lot to boost the nascent crypto-asset markets recently. The volatile sector had been facing various challenges due to a series of major events like the FTX collapse.
Notably, in June of this year, BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, submitted a bitcoin ETF applicatin, a key industry development that analysts considered to be a pivotal step for the crypto ecosystem.
Back in 2021, Cathie Wood’s ARK and crypto-focused investment business 21Shares US LLC had partnered to submit an application for a spot bitcoin ETF with the SEC.
