VanEck, one of the first companies in the world to apply for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), has not given up on plans to launch a Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States.
The company has refiled an application for a physically-backed bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
VanEck filed its latest Bitcoin ETF application on June 24, a few months after the U.S. SEC rejected its previous application for a spot Bitcoin ETF on November 12, 2021. The securities regulator’s decision was based on the ETF’s failure to meet standards to protect investors and the public interest, as well as “protect against fraudulent and manipulative practices.”
In the latest filing, VanEck offers plenty of reasons why the U.S. SEC should approve a Bitcoin ETF this time around.
The ETF firm believes that the lack of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) listed in the US does not prevent US-based funds from gaining exposure to bitcoin. VanEck believes this is because many U.S. ETPs use Canadian BTC ETPs to gain spot BTC exposure:
“Approval of this proposal, and others like it, would provide U.S. ETFs and mutual funds with U.S.-listed and regulated products, rather than relying on defective products or products listed and regulated in other countries.”
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Canada is one of the first countries in the world to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF, launching the Purpose Bitcoin ETF in February 2021.
VanEck went on to say that approving a Bitcoin spot ETF would be a logical step for it, following the U.S. SEC’s decision to allow ETFs based on Bitcoin futures. As previously reported, VanEck’s BTC futures ETF will begin trading on the CBOE on November 16, 2021.
The new document reads: “Following the approval of Bitcoin futures and the determination that the CME Bitcoin futures market is a regulated market … the only consistent outcome was the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETP, as it is also a Bitcoin spot market-related, A regulated market of considerable size.”
The deadline for consideration of VanEck’s latest spot bitcoin ETF is March 3, 2023, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Henry Jim.
VanEck was one of the first U.S. companies to apply for a Bitcoin futures ETF. The company initially applied to launch a physically-backed bitcoin ETF in June 2018, but the SEC repeatedly delayed a decision on the proposal, ultimately rejecting it three years later.