News 2 min read

BTC Price Up As Spot Bitcoin ETF Approvals Finally Happen

After a decade of waiting, it’s finally happened – the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has at last given the go-ahead to 11 spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) applications.

In a historic moment for crypto, the final list approved by the SEC includes:

  • Grayscale
  • BlackRock
  • Valkyrie
  • Invesco
  • Fidelity
  • Franklin
  • VanEck
  • BZX
  • WisdomTree
  • Bitwise 
  • Hashdex

Bitcoin ETFs are regulated financial products that allow institutional investors exposure to BTC without having to go through a regular crypto exchange like Coinbase or Binance. The monumental move had been anticipated to get the green light this month.

The newly approved products are now set to debut on the American markets overseen by the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and Cboe Global Markets – funded by leading trading firms who will supply the liquidity.

According to reports, a vote was held by commissioners at the SEC resulting in three saying yes and two saying no.

Rather surprisingly, the famously crypto-grump and SEC chair Gary Gensler approved of the ETFs, with the other two nods coming from Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda.

SEC commissioners Jaime Lizárraga and Caroline Crenshaw both voted against the proposals.

BTC price rises on ETF news

In reaction to the news, the price of Bitcoin has been trading upwards of more than 3.3% at the time of writing and is currently valued at $46,950.

In an official statement released yesterday, the SEC’s chair Gary Gensler said: “Today, the Commission approved the listing and trading of a number of spot bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) shares.”

But he begrudgingly added: “While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot bitcoin ETP shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin. Investors should remain cautious about the myriad risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to crypto.”

The official confirmation also comes a day after the SEC’s X account was hacked with a post declaring that the ETFs were signed off. According to X, the security breach was due to the regulator not having “two-factor authentication enabled at the time the account was compromised”.

Jo Kelly @ CryptoManiaks
Jo Kelly

Jo is a crypto journalist who has previously worked for the Financial Times, News UK, and Capital.com.

She’s also a woman of few words… Any questions?