Galaxy Digital founder and CEO has said we should expect the spot Bitcoin ETF approvals before January 10th. He stated this in a CNBC “Squawk Box” yesterday discussing the current state of cryptocurrency, the latest with the Bitcoin ETFs, 2024 prospects, and other pressing matters.
“We are going to get this ETF before January 10th. That is kind of a drop dead date against Gensler before he gets in trouble with Grayscale and the lawsuit. And so, I think you’re going to see this (you know) announced…it wouldn’t start trading then. That will probably take six to eight weeks after that, but it’s just more fuel for a fire…” said Novogratz.
What’s with the Grayscale Lawsuit Interplay?
Grayscale had sued the SEC back in June of last year over the resection of its application to convert its GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust) into a Spot Bitcoin ETF. The SEC rejected its ETF application because the regulator believed such a product was highly susceptible to market manipulation.
Fast forward to August this year the tables turned against the SEC. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Grayscale, stating that the company’s intended ETF is very similar to already approved Bitcoin Futures ETFs. In addition, the court dismissed the SEC’s argument that Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) price and market surveillance would suffice in detecting malicious and manipulating market activities.
After the ruling, the SEC had 45 days to appeal the ruling, which it didn’t do, this putting Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF application in the works for approval together with other a dozen other applications.
Although Grayscale’s court victory over the SEC has no direct bearing on whether or not the SEC will approve the Bitcoin ETF applications, Galaxy Digital’s Novogratz and others believe the court win could influence the regulator to approve the applications, seeing that their eventual operation won’t be inimical to investors.
Spot Bitcoin ETF in the Spotlight as BlackRock Meets Again with the SEC
BlackRock has held many meetings with the SEC over the prospects of its Spot Bitcoin ETF approval. The last meeting was held yesterday, making it three meetings in just seven business days and giving a greenlight to a potential SEC approval come January.
VanEck CEO Jan van Eck is also confident that the SEC will do a mass approval of the Bitcoin ETFs and that the “SEC approval of a spot bitcoin ETF is in itself bullish.”
“I very much expect it will be all one day beacuse that’s what happened with the Etherum Futures…,” said van Eck in a recent CNBC interview.