SEC Financial News

SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda, while voting in favor of these landmark approvals, has  publicly voiced reservations  regarding the decision-making process adopted by the commission.

Investing.com -- Bitcoin was trading higher on Thursday, while crypto-related stocks also rose, after the top U.S. securities regulator approved the first exchange-traded funds tracking the spot price of the digital asset.

Nigel Green, a long-term cryptocurrency advocate and CEO of the deVere Group, sees the landmark SEC approval of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday sending the cryptocurrency higher — perhaps to $60,000 as soon as the end of March 2024.

Investing.com -- Traders are awaiting key U.S. inflation numbers for December, which could play into how the Federal Reserve approaches potential interest rate reductions this year. Elsewhere, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approves several applications to create spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, in a landmark decision for the cryptocurrency industry.

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the decision by US regulators to approve the country’s first spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

The first funds are expected to start trading at market opening Thursday, with BlackRock leading the way with its iShares Bitcoin Trust. Other top institutions primed to begin trading include incumbents such as Fidelity and Invesco and relative newcomers like Grayscale and Ark Invest.The ruling comes after a US federal appeals court in August sided with Grayscale in a lawsuit against the SEC after the regulator denied an application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund, leading to increased pressure on the regulator to correct its cautious stance.

'Investors should remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto,' the SEC chair said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has not yet approved spot bitcoin ETFs. The SEC's account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, had been compromised briefly by an unknown party after about 4 pm Eastern time but «unauthorized access has been terminated,» the agency said. It will work with law enforcement to investigate the hack and «related conduct,» the SEC said. X's head of business operations, Joe Benarroch, said in a statement that the SEC's account was secure and the company was investigating the «root cause» of the account compromise.

Cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko experienced a security breach when their account fell victim to a phishing attack.

Bitcoin price has surged above $46,000 as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Wednesday. The approval came after a US congressional panel requested an SEC briefing on a fake tweet that claimed the regulator had authorized a bitcoin futures ETF. The tweet, which was later deleted, caused a brief spike in bitcoin’s price on Tuesday. The approval of spot bitcoin ETFs, which track the actual price of the digital asset, is seen as a major boost for the crypto industry, as it could attract more institutional and retail investors to the market.

Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood has expressed disappointment at the statement made by SEC Chair Gary Gensler shortly after the agency approved a dozen exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that directly hold Bitcoin.

Why it is important

SEC) on Wednesday approved exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the price of bitcoin in a game-changer for the cryptocurrency industry which has been trying for more than a decade to launch such a product. Multiple asset managers have applied for bitcoin ETFs since 2013, but the SEC rejected them on the grounds they would be vulnerable to market manipulation. In August, however, a court found the SEC was wrong to reject Grayscale Investments' bitcoin ETF application, forcing the agency to rethink its stance.

The SEC has at long last approved spot-price bitcoin ETFs, though it did not do so entirely willingly and will all but certainly be watching product providers very closely.

ETFs) to track bitcoin, its Chair Gary Gensler said, in a watershed for the world's largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto industry. The agency approved applications, including from BlackRock, Ark Investments and 21Shares, Fidelity, Invesco, and VanEck, among others, according to a notice on its website. Some products are expected to begin trading as early as Thursday. The products — a decade in the making — would be a game-changer for bitcoin, offering institutional and retail investors exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency without directly holding it, and a major boost for a crypto industry beset by a string of scandals. Standard Chartered analysts this week said the ETFs could draw $50 billion to $100 billion this year alone, driving the price of bitcoin as high as $100,000. Other analysts have said inflows will be closer to $55 billion over five years.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reluctantly approved the first exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin Wednesday, saying it is still deeply skeptical about cryptocurrencies and that the SEC “did not approve or endorse bitcoin” in its decision.

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US regulators for the first time approved exchange-traded funds that invest directly in bitcoin, a move heralded as a landmark for the roughly $1.7 trillion digital-asset sector that will broaden access to the largest cryptocurrency on Wall Street and beyond.

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