How the SEC “dug into a hole” by not approving a Bitcoin ETF

Reynaldo Marquez

Last Updated: March 19, 2021 9:00 pm

2 mins read

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Pro crypto Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Pierce talked about the U.S. current regulatory landscape on Bitcoin’s Association YouTube channel.

The Commissioner revealed that some progress has been made to change the approach the regular have on digital assets.

Pierce has chosen to focus on the innovations brought by digital assets and cryptocurrencies and their benefits to consumers. Her colleagues at the regulatory body have taken a largely opposite stance.

The Commissioner highlighted the importance that flexibility and the ability to a point of view quickly have in this field. The Commissioner has repeatedly called for approval of a Bitcoin-based Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). Her requests have been ignored by the regulator. Pierce said:

What I would urge my fellow regulators and people at the Fed to think is to think not only to have the reaction of looking at where the negatives are but to really look for the positives (…). I would hope they won’t ruled out the positive things that could happen in the purely private sector as well (…). Don’t view this (crypto regulation) as a competition between the private and public sector.

Pierce asked his fellow commissioners to take a “more optimistic” stance. A regulator that becomes an obstacle to innovation, in the Commissioner’s view, will take lose-lose actions for all parties.

For Pierce, the crypto industry is in its infancy. Eventually, she believes that its use cases may be integrated into various areas to remove “single points of failure” and increase the “resilience” of the financial system. The Commissioner invited to see “the whole picture”.

The SEC has rejected the launch of a Bitcoin ETF. However, Pierce believes that the interest the cryptocurrency has recently received is changing how her fellow regulators view the asset. The approval of Gary Gensler as chairman of the SEC, she said, could bring a different vision to the institution.

The commissioner hopes Gensler will be open to the idea of creating a “safe harbor” program within the U.S. This program would provide more clarity in the industry and facilities a conversation between the U.S. regulators.

A “Safe Harbor” could be a more “productive” alternative than no action which is “what has been done so far”. On the possibility of a Bitcoin ETF being approved in the U.S., Pierce said:

(Institucions) want access to crypto trough a regulated market. It makes sense for us to consider how to do that (…). We’ve dug ourselves into a little bit of a hole. A lot of people are looking for a way to access the asset class. We waited a long time to approved this kind of product.

The Commissioner said she is not biased to a particulate network; her main interest is to provide clarity “early”.

Canada’s ETF hits $1 billion

Meanwhile, Senior ETF analyst for Bloomberg, Eric Balchunas, reported on the progress of Canada’s Bitcoin ETF. Approved early March, the financial product in that country has managed to break $1 billion. The expert said:

the Canada ETF market is 1/27th the size of US, so proportionally speaking this is like a US ETF hitting $27b within a month, which hasn’t ever even come close to happening.

Reynaldo Marquez

A literature major, Reynaldo Márquez has been deeply immersed in the crypto industry since 2017. His journey began with translating articles for various crypto news outlets, a role he took on with zeal. In 2018, amidst a challenging market, he embraced his first writing assignment, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to the nascent industry and the promise of change it bears for many people worldwide.
In March 2021, he joined the prestigious crypto news outlet NewsBTC and Bitcoinist, where he not only reported on the latest crypto news but also had the privilege of interviewing some of the industry's most influential figures. A year later, his dedication and hard work were recognized, and he was promoted to Managing Editor, a position he currently holds with pride.
He believes in honesty, good communication, hard work, and the power of cryptocurrency and its potential to transform people's lives, especially those alienated by the legacy financial system. Born in 1992 in Venezuela, Reynaldo is familiar with how governments and central banks can negatively affect people, their everyday lives, and their futures by creating inflation and erasing their hopes for a better future. Thus, like many Venezuelans, he embraced this new technology to help him and his family navigate difficult times.
In another life, Reynaldo would have pursued a career as an investigator, most likely tracking down the origins of the Cyberpunk movement with the publication of William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer.’ The intersection between fiction and reality, with the materialization of Bitcoin in 2009, would have allowed him to dive deep into the crypto sphere as something more than a financial phenomenon but also a cultural shift in society that was brewing since the XX century, and maybe even sooner, in the XIX century with the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience.’
But that’s for another life. In this one, Reynaldo has been trading to improve his trading skills. Since 2023, he has been trying to learn Python to create successful strategies and find ways to execute them. It is a difficult task, which continues to keep him busy today and will most likely continue to keep him busy in the near and long term.
In his free time, he enjoys lifting heavy objects, reading, watching movies, and listening to his favorite music. Some of his favorite authors are Walt Whitman, William Faulkner, Allen Ginsberg, James Baldwin, Raymond Carver, Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Mario Vargas Llosa, Reinaldo Arenas, Rafael Cadenas, and many others. Lately, he has been primarily interested in reading about dystopic societies, a topic that deeply resonates with the crypto industry.
Since 2023, he has lived in Spain with his wife. He loves the weather, the food, and the people and their culture. They both expect to travel much more within the country they now call home and beyond its border. He hopes to retire with his wife, maybe in a quiet place near a beach, but most likely in a city close to a library and a university with his kids and, hopefully, grandkids.

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