The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to deny every application to market a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) this month, according to cryptocurrency investing services provider Matrixport.
“The current five-person voting Commissioners leadership critical for the ETF approval of the SEC is dominated by Democrats,” wrote the firm in a note on Wednesday. “SEC Chair Gensler is not embracing crypto in the U.S., and it might even be a very long shot to expect that he would vote to approve bitcoin spot ETFs.”
“An ETF would certainly enable crypto overall to take off, and based on Gensler’s comments in December 2023, he still sees this industry in need of more stringent compliance,” Matrixport continued. “From a political perspective, there is no reason to approve a bitcoin spot ETF that would legitimize Bitcoin as an alternative store of value.”
With an almost 160% annual gain, bitcoin concluded 2023 at levels not seen since April 2022 thanks to the much-anticipated approval of a spot BTC ETF in the United States.
Ten billion of the additional $14 billion in fiat and leverage that has been invested in cryptocurrency since September, according to Matrixport, may be connected to ETF expectations.At $42.445, Bitcoin has now dropped by about 7% on the day. The entire decline occurred in the last few minutes, at 12:00 UTC.