It is unlikely that Bitcoin (BTC) will see its first spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States anytime soon.
That is the opinion of the trading company QCP Capital, which in its last market update on June 22 warned about the prospects for spot ETFs.
SEC’s Gensler Barriers to Bitcoin ETFs
The price of BTC is up more than 20% since BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, filed for the creation of a US spot Bitcoin ETF.
It would be the first of its kind, as all applications for such a spot ETF have so far been rejected by the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Although institutional participation in the Bitcoin space is set to increase, according to QCP, the current SEC lineup means spot ETFs remain unlikely to receive the go-ahead.
The picture is complicated by current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, under whose leadership the body filed lawsuits against major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
“However, with Gensler leading the SEC, we are not confident that actual approval of the ETF will come any time soon,” he wrote in the update.
The QCP prospect is especially sobering, as the researchers themselves point out, as BlackRock has only seen one SEC rejection of 576 applications so far.
“However, as we have continually maintained, there is a huge place for institutional BTC and ETH in the world of asset management, and the coming months and years will see further steps in that direction.“added the update.
GBTC recovery continues
As Cointelegraph reported, knock-on effects from BlackRock have appeared beyond BTC’s own price performance.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), having rallied since its shares traded close to 50% below BTC/USD, continues to make up lost ground.
On June 22, its discount to BTC spot, also known as discount to net asset value (NAV), hit its lowest levels in 2023 at 33.45%, according to data from the tracking resource CoinGlass.
QCP went on to say that its recent performance marked its “sharpest” recovery since late 2020, when Bitcoin stormed to surpass its previous all-time highs from 2017.
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