The SEC Should Have Approved a Bitcoin ETF Already, Says Hester Peirce

Hester Peirce, also known as the “crypto mom,” believes the agency she works at – the Securities and Exchange Commission – should have greenlighted a BTC ETF years ago. She argued that the SEC’s rationale keeps growing weaker.

• In an interview with CNBC, Peirce commented on the hot topic of Bitcoin ETF in the US and whether the country’s regulator will eventually approve such a product.
• She said this is “probably the biggest, the most-often-asked question I get.” But, with the SEC’s countless rejections for an exchange-traded fund tracking the performance of the primary cryptocurrency, Peirce said the methods have grown old.
• “I thought that if we had applied our standards as we have applied them to other products, we would already have approved one or more of them. With each passing day, the rationale that we have used in the past for not approving seems to grow weaker.”

  Hester Peirce. Source: CNBC

• Furthermore, Peirce noted that regulators have an old-school approach as they are not used to review more modern and innovative developments. However, she believes the cryptocurrency market has matured quite a bit in the past decade, which is why a BTC ETF could work now.
• As previously reported, the SEC has received numerous applications from various companies attempting to launch a Bitcoin ETF. However, almost all have been rejected by now.
• The Commission still reviews a few, but it continues to delay the final decision, as it happened with VanEck’s most recent application.
• At the same time, Canada has displayed a significantly more favorable approach as there’re already three BTC ETFs operating as of this year. Interestingly, they enjoyed a positive start with investors allocating millions in the first few months after launching.