The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally approved a range of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications. 

The decision comes more than a decade after the initial filing for a crypto-based ETF, a financial product designed to track the performance of various assets such as commodities and equities. 

The newly approved ETFs will specifically track the spot market price of Bitcoin.

Wall Street giants such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck, alongside several native crypto firms, are among those bringing these ETFs to the market. 

The approval of these products has the potential to attract significant capital inflows into Bitcoin (BTC), with many crypto executives expressing enthusiasm about their impact on the digital asset market. 

“The significance of this moment cannot be overstated,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a recent post on X (formerly Twitter). 

“Congrats to all who have worked to get Bitcoin spot ETFs approved!” he wrote, adding that the news “is further legitimization of crypto as an asset class.”

“I expect this will be yet another catalyst for institutional investment / adoption, ideally leading the industry to focus outside primarily speculative to broader real-world use cases, underpinning that legitimization.”

The significance of this moment cannot be overstated.

Congrats to all who have worked to get Bitcoin spot ETFs approved!

Today’s news is further legitimization of crypto as an asset class. I expect this will be yet another catalyst for institutional investment / adoption,… https://t.co/3jlqQYm0Xl

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 10, 2024

Grayscale Played a Major Role in ETF Approval

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and the platform’s cheif legal officer Paul Grewal both pointed out the Grayscale has played a key role in the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

“Grayscale deserves a huge amount of credit for today, pushing this through the courts.”

.@Grayscale deserves a huge amount of credit for today, pushing this through the courts

Absolute legends https://t.co/fWZzg0QskU

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 11, 2024

In September, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of Grayscale, ordering the SEC to set aside its earlier rejection of Grayscale’s application and reopen the review process.

The court ruled that there was no justification for the SEC to allow Bitcoin futures-based ETFs but deny spot Bitcoin ETFs.

It claimed that fraud and manipulation in the Bitcoin spot market pose a similar risk to both futures and spot products because the spot market and the CME futures market are tightly correlated. 

Therefore, the SEC’s rejection of Grayscale’s proposal was “arbitrary and capricious” because the agency failed to explain its different treatment of similar products, the court said.

Meanwhile, former Microstrategy CEO and Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor noted that it still needs six confirmations from the SEC before an ETF transaction is settled. 

ETFs Show Crypto is “Unstoppable”

Tron’s Justin Sun claimed that the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US show that crypto is “unstoppable.”

“In the near future, Asian and Chinese markets will also embrace this opportunity, and Bitcoin will eventually reach the world’s eight billion people,” he added. 

The approval of Bitcoin ETF in the United States demonstrates that the trend of cryptocurrencies is unstoppable. In the near future, Asian and Chinese markets will also embrace this opportunity, and Bitcoin will eventually reach the world’s eight billion people.

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) January 11, 2024

Likewise, in an email to Cryptonews.com, Jonathan Steinberg, WisdomTree Founder and CEO, called the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs as the next major step in crypto.

“While potential investors must carefully consider if the risk profile of a digital asset such as bitcoin has a place in their portfolio, we see this effectiveness as a major step in the industry evolution that we’re leading – where the blockchain is redefining the way we see finance today.”

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