Statement from Perianne Boring, Founder and CEO, Chamber of Digital Commerce, on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s rejection of the Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust and the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust to a spot Bitcoin ETF:

“It’s extremely disappointing that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected both the Bitwise Asset Management and Grayscale spot Bitcoin ETF applications today. This continued pattern of denial can no longer be justified in light of the SEC’s approval of a futures Bitcoin ETF product and the significant amount of data provided to the SEC with the Bitwise Asset Management application demonstrating that a substantial and regulated market surveillance framework has developed around bitcoin trading over the past few years.    

ETFs are perhaps the most impactful and innovative investment product introduced over the past 30 years and the fact the SEC has denied every application filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF since 2013 baffles me. At least 16 issuers, including some of the largest and most respected names in the asset management industry, have worked with U.S. stock exchanges to file spot Bitcoin ETF applications with the SEC to date. All have been denied –– some multiple times. 

We know that U.S. investors want this product and we know that U.S. issuers want to meet that demand. It’s estimated that 16 percent of Americans own cryptocurrency today. A spot Bitcoin ETF would provide U.S. investors the ability to invest in bitcoin under the protections of the U.S. securities laws. While the SEC continues to stonewall approval of this important product, many other highly regulated jurisdictions, such as Canada and Australia, have approved spot Bitcoin ETF products for retail investors, leaving U.S. investors at a big disadvantage.”