SEC chair hints how Grayscale victory could influence ETF decisions

SEC revises its approach to spot bitcoin-ETF after court rulings. CNBC reported that SEC Chair Gary Gensler said.

According to the official, the agency is currently examining eight to twelve such proposals.

In the past we rejected a number of such motions. We are re-examining this issue in light of court rulings, he explained.

Gensler did not mention Grayscale‘s victory in the GBTC conversion case into an exchange-traded fund.

When asked for clarification, he said the SEC is guided by ‘the laws enacted by Congress and how courts interpret them’.

In another interview on the same day, Gensler refused to discuss bitcoin ETFs. He cited low priority and said cryptocurrencies have harmed many investors.

More than a dozen proposals to register exchange-traded funds based on the spot price of Bitcoin are under consideration by the SEC.

Among the applicants are BlackRock, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton and Fidelity, whose representatives in early December continued discussions about potential product launches with the regulator.

The process began in November and, according to experts, has moved into the final stage.

Earlier, Gensler repeatedly stated that cryptocurrencies are securities and should be regulated by the SEC. The head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Rostin Behnam, by contrast, considers most digital assets as commodities.

As noted by the SEC chairman, the global economy does not need cryptocurrencies, and they can harm it. He described the digital-asset industry as rife with fraud, scams and other wrongdoing.