Following a public comment period, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 9 disapproved a request submitted by NYSE Arca that would have allowed shares of Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust to be listed and traded citing its potential for fraudulent and manipulative acts involving the virtual currency. NYSE Arca is a U.S. exchange for the listing and trading of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and Bitwise Investment Advisers manages and controls the trust.
In reaching its conclusion about this latest effort to list and trade bitcoin, the SEC took care to note its focus on the fraud potential, admitting its “disapproval does not rest on an evaluation of whether bitcoin, or blockchain technology, more generally has utility or value as an innovation or an investment.”
