The SEC chief explained why they approved the BTC Futures ETF, but the spots did not

On the day of the launch of the historically first BTC Futurues ETF from ProShares, which was approved by his commission, the head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler answered questions related to this topic in an interview with CNBC.

Before the SEC chief spoke, ProShares CEO Simeon Hyman was given the space to answer the question of whether he shared some investors’ concerns that ETF futures on BTC could deviate significantly from BTC’s spot price. ,, The futures market is a better place to discover prices. The CME futures market trades more than the largest US crypto exchange. We launched a similar mutual fund on July 28, and since its inception, the BTC reference rate has increased by 52 percent, while our BTC mutual fund has increased by 52 percent, and the Grayscale BTC Trust is up by only 37 percent,” he said.

CEO ProShares thus indicated that BTC futures ETFs may be closer to the spot price of BTC than GBTC from Grayscale Investments, which is covered by over 550,000 BTC. This statement is partly supported by the fact that Grayscale wants to convert its GBTC to a spot BTC ETF.

Why futures ETFs yes and spots (yet) no?

The moderator of the discussion, Bob Pisano, subsequently asked Gensler why the SEC decided to prefer the license for BTC Fuutres ETFs over the traditional spot BTC ETFs, which, according to analysts, are of much greater interest among investors. Gensler replied:

“What we are trying to do is bring new products to a level that is protected by investors. BTC futures has been overseen by the SEC’s sister agency, the US Commodity Futures Commission (CFTC), for about four years. So we have something that has been overseen by a federal regulator for the past four years and has been wrapped in SEC jurisdiction through the Investment Company Act of 1940. ”

SEC Chair Gensler on why the SEC allowed a BTC futures ETF to begin trading but not a regular #BTC ETF:

“We should be technology-neutral but not policy-neutral. What we’re trying to do is bring projects into the investor protection perimeter.”pic.twitter.com/5fArpNUZRy

– Bloqport (@Bloqport) October 19, 2021

The head of ProShares added that he has great confidence in the success of their ETF. “We believe that it will trade really well. I think that regulated futures traded under the 1940 law will open up the opportunity to gain exposure to BTC to many people who have so far felt on the sidelines. “

The first trading day of ProShares’ BTC Futures ETF turned out to be higher than expected. According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, it had the greatest debut in the history of American ETFs.