Following a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) filed under regulations that would be utilized for a spot fund that recently went live on the market, the highly-discussed Bitcoin (BTC) spot ETF may finally emerge in the United States.
According to Bloomberg, the relevant fund, which started trading on the NYSE Arca exchange recently, is Teucrium’s Hashdex Bitcoin Futures ETF with the appropriate ticker code DEFI.
Additionally, Bloomberg’s report claimed that the fund is unique from all other bitcoin ETFs that had been released thus far as it was registered under the Securities Act of 1933 — an act that would be required to apply for a Bitcoin spot ETF.
The Investment Company Act of 1940 had been filed for all other Bitcoin ETFs in the US. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been rejecting the listing of many spot-based crypto ETFs that are backed directly by digital assets.
All of the currently available crypto ETFs in the US are backed by Bitcoin futures contracts rather than “physical” bitcoins as the result. The only crypto-based ETFs that are currently available in the US are Bitcoin ETFs.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler cited greater investor protections under the Investment Company Act of 1940 as the reason why that law has been favored by the SEC for crypto ETFs to be filed under, as per Bloomberg.
However, concerns are being voiced regarding whether the SEC’s view on crypto ETFs have changed given that the new fund was filed and approved under the 1933 law.
According to the advisory firm The ETF Store president Nate Geraci, the launch of this Teucrium product “only strengthens the case for a spot Bitcoin ETF because it’s utilizing the exact same fund structure”.
However, he added that this doesn’t mean the SEC will rethink their hard-line stance even slightly.
