An interview of Commissioner Robert J Jackson Jr. with Congressional Quarterly was recently leaked on Twitter. In the interview, the Commissioner was seen giving his view on Bitcoin ETF and was being optimistic about the launch of Bitcoin ETF.
Robert J. Jackson Jr. who is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s, Democratic commissioner, stated that even though the ETF applications which prevail in the last year had followed a series of rejection but this would not continue for a longer time and therefore the processes would soon get turnaround soon.
Jackson stated to the Congressional Quarterly regarding the nature of the SEC specifically for the investment vehicles like exchange-traded funds. He added: “Getting the stamp of approval from the deepest and most liquid capital markets in the world is hard, and it should be. Once we put the stamp of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on an investment; once we make it available to everyday mom and pop investors, we are taking risks that Americans can get hurt.”
He further added that “Eventually, do I think someone will satisfy the standards we’ve laid out there? I hope so, yes, and I think so,” as per the leaked interview quotation.
In 2018, although several ETF proposals that include Winklevoss twins – Cameron and Tyler – and the Cboe has been reviewed by the SEC department and all of them have received the same answer that is “no” or the outcome was ultimately postponed at the time of the final conclusion, he seems optimistic on the same in the current year. He commented that “I’m happy to say market participants have begun to come in with ideas. Whether or not we’re going to find one that really protects investors, I don’t know, but I do know that that case wasn’t especially close.”
Talking about the past applications, Jackson spoke on the ETF application made by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss in March 2017 and also how the markets reacted on its rejection. He stated that “There you had a situation where the risk for manipulation and for people getting hurt was enormous. The liquidity issues in the market were very serious,”.
VanEck, one of the operators, hooked in general dialog with the SEC has observed a list of worries related to this product. Earlier this month, the U.S. government shutdown lead to the applications being temporarily withdrawn before they were resubmitted a week later.
Earlier, Hester M. Peirce, U.S. SEC commissioner, had also objected the regulator’s second disapproval related to the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF in July 2018 and further addressed that the SEC has primarily made a mistake with the rejection decision.
During the last month, the SEC had provided a list of their priorities for the current year that also had cryptos related matter within the list. According to the report, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) would put down their effort and monitor on various aspects of the crypto related activities such as the ‘offer and sale, trading, and management of digital assets.’
The OCIE’s statement on the matter stated, “OCIE will take steps to identify market participants offering, selling, trading, and managing these products or considering or actively seeking to offer these products and then assess the extent of their activities. For firms actively engaged in the digital asset market, OCIE will conduct examinations focused on, among other things, portfolio management of digital assets, trading, the safety of client funds and assets, pricing of client portfolios, compliance, and internal controls.”
