SEC reportedly beats Valkyrie’s leveraged bitcoin ETF

Reports are surfacing that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently rejected one or possibly two applications for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, suggesting that the regulator is not quite ready for the more exotic future products.

Just a day or so after Valkyrie filed for a leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF and Direxion filed for a bear-inverse fund, the SEC appears to have vetoed both.

28, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas referred to a Dow Jones warning that the Valkyrie leveraged fund has been removed by the SEC. He added that the move will likely apply to the inverse fund application as well.

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On February 26, the ETF issuer Direxion presented a Strategy Bear Bitcoin ETF that enables speculators to short sell BTC futures. On the same day, Valkyrie filed an application for a leveraged BTC futures ETF that offers 1.25 times the risk of the asset.

The Direxion product invests entirely in futures, but the Valkyrie product holds futures, swaps, options and forwards. Another warning from Dow Jones reports that the SEC appears to only be interested in direct futures products at the moment, funds that buy contracts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

The regulator does not appear to want to approve products that invest in the asset itself or anything other than CME futures at this time. Balchunas confirms:

“It would be interesting (and possible) if they let inverse pass. That is one of the limits for the future. Valkyrie is a bit far from this language. “

Related: Cryptocurrency Breaks Wall Street’s ETF Barrier: A Tipping Point or a Stop?

ETF Store President, Nate Geraci, report that on October 27th two more ETFs were registered by AXS Investments. The SEC filing for a regular Bitcoin strategy ETF is similar to two approved funds and another short or reverse fund.

Another Dow Jones report says Grayscale is confident that the SEC will be ready to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF by July 2022.

In 19, Grayscale filed with the SEC to convert its popular Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot fund backed by the asset itself rather than a futures contract.

Geraci, commented on the current lack of regulation for the spot crypto market: “So the crypto market / exchange will be regulated by then? Looks ambitious. ”

In related news, VanEck is making final preparations for the launch of its Bitcoin strategy ETF, trading under the ticker XBTF. Wednesdays, balchunas speak There is a “good chance” that trading could begin on Friday October 29th, but possibly Thursday as well.