The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just denied Wilshire Phoenix in their proposal for a Bitcoin exchange-trade fund (ETF). According to the decision, Wilshire has not provided enough evidence to show that BTC is resistant to market manipulation.
“The Commission concludes that NYSE Arca has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with the requirements of Exchange Act Section 6(b)(5), and, in particular, the requirement that the rules of a national securities exchange be ‘designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices’ and ‘to protect investors and the public interest.'”
Wilshire had hoped to end the SEC’s long streak of Bitcoin ETF rejections. The SEC has said no to all ETF proposals that have come its way, primarily based on the concern that the Bitcoin market is too easy to exploit.
As US regulators deny yet another crypto investment vehicle, Germany’s second-largest stock exchange, Boerse Stuttgart, has listed a new exchange-traded product (ETP) that keeps track of the inverse Bitcoin value in euro. 21Shares, the company that created the ETP, says the tracker is unprecedented in both the cryptocurrency and ETP worlds. When Bitcoin’s price falls, the ETP rises.
“This is a first in the bitcoin industry to list a financial instrument wrapped as an ETP with an ISIN/WKN number and trading in EUR. Investors in Germany have demonstrated such strong support for prior crypto offerings.
As an issuer of crypto products, it is important for us to listen, though with caution, to the requests of our investors and respond in kind by supporting the investor community who have a strong appetite in cryptocurrencies.”
Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea is testing a blockchain system for government bond transactions.
The bank will record transactions from the country’s Securities Depository on a distributed ledger. A Korean government official tells the Asia Times,
“We are using government bonds to record securities and cash transactions in a distributed ledger and test whether a real-time simultaneous payment trading system is possible.”
