Following yesterday's false start, it appears the SEC has now officially (well almost) approved a spot Bitcoin ETF. The SEC dropped the following at this link…
Then pulled the link.
As Bloomberg's James Seyffart noted, "It certainly looks like the #Bitcoin ETF Approval order had hit the SEC website."
“I am happy to confirm that the Grayscale team has received necessary regulatory approvals to uplist GBTC to NYSE Arca, and we will share a press release with additional information shortly” said a Grayscale spokesperson.
There are more than a dozen applications pending with the SEC, according to Decrypt (and the implication of the SEC post is that they are all approved):
Additionally, good news for investors is that an apparent 'fee war' has broken out among ETF providers, according to Bloomberg Intelligence ETF Analyst James Seyffart.
As we noted after last night's false start, ETFs could technically start trading tomorrow since the Cboe BZX Exchange earlier gave notice of approved securities listings from several asset managers.
In Jan. 10 letters filed with the SEC, Cboe said it had approved spot BTC ETF offerings from ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, Fidelity, VanEck, WisdomTree and Franklin Templeton. The deadline for final approval or denial of the spot Bitcoin ETF from ARK 21Shares is Jan. 10, leading to speculation that the SEC may approve multiple offerings from asset managers simultaneously.
The reaction in crypto appears to be reflective of what we suggested last night…
As ETH rallies hard relative to BTH…
…erasing all of the YTD relative weakness…
Meanwhile, during an interview with Fox's Maria Bartiromo, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reiterated his long-held belief that crypto is fraud:
Which is ironic given that global investment giant BlackRock named JP Morgan as an active participant in its pending ETF filing with the SEC.
Finally, on a side note, the desperation of the mainstream media to somehow blame Elon Musk, or X, for the SEC's utter lack of professionalism is [insert word that implies amazement but not shock because this is exactly what we thought would happen].
As we detailed earlier, with fingers being pointed and blame being apportioned for the SEC screw-up, X's Safety team have provided a rather awkward statement on the results of their probe of the breach.
And there it is, just as the mainstream establishment would have loved to blame Elon Musk, or X, it turns out the world's leading securities regulator was incapable of utilizing two-factor authentication on an account that by all standards can be extremely market-moving in its capabilities.
Of course, these FACTS did not stop 'journalists' running with the narrative that it's all Elon's fault…
The SEC said on Wednesday that the FBI was probing the incident.
Sigh…