The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has applied for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) license with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the registration statement, published on June 26, CBOE intends to trade in SolidX shares.
A licensed Bitcoin (BTC) fund can be a potential game-changer for the industry. As Bitwise Asset Management head John Hyland said in a recent interview, once the SEC approves a cryptocurrency ETF, there will no longer be any grounds for rejecting similar products.
The SEC has already requested comments on the application, under which one share will be valued at BTC 25. According to the registration documents, the investment objective will be for the shares to “reflect the performance of the price of bitcoin, and less the expenses of the Trust’s operation.” If CBOE’s application is approved, a Bitcoin fund can be launched in 2019.
The move comes amid an overall warming up towards the cryptocurrency sector by mainstream financial institutions. In June, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein stated that dismissing Bitcoin will be “arrogant”, while CFTC commissioner Rostin Behnam called cryptocurrencies a “modern miracle”.
CBOE could buck the trend
Although the SEC has rejected all applications so far, experts suggest CBOE might have better chances than previous applicants.
In January, the SEC expressed concerns about the launch of a Bitcoin ETF, but in June, the agency issued a statement that they do not consider Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin to be securities and as such they will not be subject to the same regulations as stocks and bonds.
Hyland said in his interview for ETF.com in June he expects the SEC to approve a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded fund in the near future. The expert believes the US authorities might be looking to make the local market more competitive, as four crypto-ETFs worth $600 million have already been operating in Europe since 2015.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
