Cryptocurrency Prices Up 2-13% As SEC Deadline For Public Comments On ETFs Ends

The cryptocurrency market made some gains Wednesday after the Securities and Exchange Commission stopped accepting public comments on bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposals Monday, but did not give an official decision or timeline on when these funds would be launched.

It was anticipated that the SEC would make public Nov. 5 its decision on the applications for the nine bitcoin ETFs that it had examined in August.

The Monday deadline was for public comments, not the decision per se. But some community members expected the commission to publish a statement at the end of the process. Some influencers who took to Twitter about the rumors later acknowledged that it was incorrect.

Any indication on the SEC's stance on crypto ETFs is important for the ecosystem. A positive comment would add legitimacy to the crypto market, in turn, affecting the prices of bitcoin and other currencies.

The price of bitcoin and other top currencies (in the last 24 hours of trade) remained positive, with prices surging between 2 percent and 13 percent. Bitcoin prices increased about 2 percent, ethereum rose by 3.78 percent, bitcoin cash showcased the highest gain of 13 percent, and steller went up by 3 percent, as tracked by CoinMarketCap.

An ETF is a marketable security that tracks either an index of funds, commodities, or a basket of assets. A bitcoin ETF would allow investors to purchase bitcoin through funds listed on a regulated stock exchange.

"Bitcoin continues to trade in an ever-tighter range, which from a technical perspective can only mean that we are due an inevitable breakout. Volume has now started to pick back up again over the last week with a 20 percent increase in the last 7 days. With rumors of a further delay in the SEC decision on ETF's, it is going to be interesting to see how the market trades out for the rest of this week," David Thomas, director of London-based cryptocurrency broker GlobalBlock, told International Business Times on Monday on prices getting affected because of the expected SEC statement. He said a positive news could lead to a "strong breakout to the upside for BTC."

The SEC had rejected the nine applications of various bitcoin ETFs from three different applicants — two submitted by ProShared in association with the New York Stock Exchange, five presented by Direxion and two by GraniteShares.

The SEC had explained the reason for rejection in all the three cases: "The exchange has offered no record evidence to demonstrate that bitcoin futures markets are ‘markets of significant size.’ That failure is critical because ... the exchange has failed to establish that other means to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices will be sufficient, and therefore surveillance-sharing with a regulated market of significant size related to bitcoin is necessary.”

After rejecting the ETFs, the commission said Aug. 23 that it would review its decision again "in the future". Hester M. Peirce, the SEC commissioner, said on Twitter that the decision was reached by SEC officials who had been delegated with the task by chairman and commissioners, who then decided to reassess their action.

It is a standard practice for the SEC to invite public comments — the regulator had collected more than 1,300 comments on the recommended rule change to list and trade shares of the VanEck SolidX ETF.

A recent annual report by the SEC highlighted that the commission's top priority is to stop digital currency scams. The report also mentioned that it would take down any initial coin offerings if it has a reason to believe that it is not following the rules. The report notes ICOs as “high-risk investments” as many “lack viable products or established track records.”