Steven McClurg, the chief investment officer of Valkyrie Investments, said in a Cointelegraph podcast that the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has pushed back further the launch of a bitcoin-based spot ETF in the United States.
According to him, the main regulatory hurdles in this matter for the United States remain custody arrangements and market manipulation. McClurg argues that the first hurdle would have been largely resolved if not for collapse of FTX.
He regards concerns about market manipulation as unfounded. He cites the successful operation of such instruments in Canada since February 2021.
“We conducted due diligence on Celsius, Voyager, BlockFi, FTX and never worked with them. We decided that they are unsafe platforms to participate in,” McClurg said.
He also said that Valkyrie Investments “believe” that a spot bitcoin ETF would be approved by the next administration after the 2024 presidential election or through legislative action.
In June 2022, asset manager VanEck filed papers to launch a spot bitcoin ETF. The previous filing by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected in November 2021.
The firm argued that a positive regulator verdict would be logical after the approval of a futures-based bitcoin ETF. A similar instrument from VanEck received approval in October 2021. It was the third to list in the United States after products from ProShares and Valkyrie Investments.
In October 2021, Grayscale Investments filed to convert its digital-gold-based trust into a spot bitcoin ETF.
On 17 December the SEC deferred a decision on the application, and in February 2022 it again took this step. On 30 June Grayscale sued the regulator after the final rejection of its application.
The firm had previously noted that the SEC’s willingness to approve a futures-based bitcoin ETF while rejecting applications for its spot variant could violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
Craig Salama, head of Grayscale’s legal department, estimated that the lawsuit against the Commission could take one to two years. The company regards the regulator’s decision as “unfair discrimination.”
The Wall Street Journal editorial board accused SEC Chair Gary Gensler of a “confusing” approach to approving a spot bitcoin ETF.