The rejection of nine Bitcoin exchange traded funds on August 22 has been “stayed” as the Securities and Exchange Commission reviews it decision.
The bombshell was announced by SEC commissioner Hester Peirce, who famously criticised her colleagues for rejecting a Bitcoin ETF proposal from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss last month.
Ms Peirce announced on Twitter that the decision to reject the ETFs from Direxion ProShares, Direxion and GraniteShares had been delegated to “staff” from within the SEC and Commissioners and Chairmans want to review that decision.
“The Commission (Chairman and Commissioners) delegates some tasks to its staff,” Ms Peirce wrote.
“When the staff acts in such cases, it acts on behalf of the Commission. The Commission may review the staff’s action, as will now happen here.”
Yesterday's staff orders disapproving SRO rules related to a number of bitcoin ETFs are stayed pending Commission review. See, for example: https://t.co/Ky9Z8t1E4q
— Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) August 23, 2018
The link in the tweet is to a letter sent by Brent Fields, the SEC’s Secretary, to Eugene Schlanger Counsel for NYSE Group. You can read it here.
The cryptocurrency market has rallied since the development, with Bitcoin trading at around AUD $9,000 at the time of publication.