Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected a proposal on Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) presented by Bitwise Asset Management. Later on, the Commission would proceed to publish a 112-page document exposing how it had chosen to reject the proposal.
In its explanation, the SEC stated that the proposed fund seemed to pave the way for market manipulation. Nonetheless, to the delight of many crypto enthusiasts, the Commission has announced that it is set to undertake a review of all the applications that it rejected at the beginning of last month.
New Deadline Revealed
While announcing this review, the SEC provided a new deadline for the review process. It set December 18, 2019, as the official deadline, and noted:
“Accordingly, it is ordered, pursuant to Commission Rule of Practice 431, that by December 18, 2019, any party or another person may file a statement in support of, or in opposition to, the action made pursuant to delegated authority.”
Additionally, the rejection order issued in the past month was expected to remain active until the current review process had been completed. In its announcement, the Commission pointed out that the reason that the Bitwise and NYSE Arca proposal was shot down last month was that it did not prove that the digital assets markets were devoid of manipulation and fraud.
A New Ray of Hope for ETF Proposals
However, having said this, the firms have regained a sense of hope due to the constant delays that have continued to plague the ETF decision-making process. Jay Clayton, the SEC Chairman, commented that on matters to ETF, some “progress was being made.” This statement was seen to favor the Bitwise application for the Bitcoin ETF.
According to Matt Hougan, who is Bitwise Head of Global Research, the firm has been working “feverishly” to try to gain approval from the SEC despite the initial rejection issued at the beginning of November.
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