American stock market watchdog SEC approves first regulated bitcoin funds

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the first spot ETFs for bitcoin. This means that investors can now invest in the cryptocurrency without having to directly own the coin in a digital wallet.

With the approval of the Bitcoin ETFs, this cryptocurrency has been listed on the US stock exchange for the first time. Previously, trading in bitcoins only took place outside the regulated market. The prices of the regulated funds are tied to the bitcoin price. Because American users no longer have to set up a digital wallet via a separate platform such as Binance, but can invest indirectly in the currency via regular investment platforms, investing in bitcoins becomes more accessible. This will most likely lead to a large increase in cryptocurrency investments. At the moment of writing there is by the way no major increase in the value of the currency has yet been seen.

The SEC has initially approved eleven exchange traded funds, including from BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest asset manager, and other major players such as Fidelity and Invesco. In other parts of the world, including the EU, it has been possible to invest in bitcoins on the regulated exchange for some time.

On Wednesday, a message was posted on the SEC’s X account stating that bitcoin ETFs are allowed. However, that post was later deleted and the regulator said that his account had been hacked. The SEC then contradicted the message about the approval, but now they have been officially approved after all.

The SEC and Chairman Gary Gensler have been strongly against Bitcoin for ten years. In 2017, a proposal to allow ETFs was rejected because the price of the digital currency would be too sensitive to fraud and manipulation. In a recent lawsuit however, had already been spoken that the SEC may no longer simply block an ETF. In his statement late Gensler We also know that certain ETFs are now allowed, but that the SEC still does not endorse bitcoins.