Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood responded to a hacker who posted an endorsement of a spot Bitcoin ETF on “The Claman Countdown.”
After years of stalling, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finally approved a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), making the cryptocurrency more accessible to retail investors, Chairman Gary Gensler announced in a statement on Wednesday.
“Today, the Commission approved the listing and trading of several physical shares of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETPs),” he wrote, also detailing investor protection measures.
“These products will be listed and traded on registered domestic stock exchanges. These regulated exchanges are required to have rules in place to prevent fraud and manipulation, and we will closely monitor whether they are enforcing those rules,” he added.
SEC Chairman Gensler's Statement on Spot Bitcoin ETF
The move is seen as a game-changer for crypto investors after many companies have tried and failed to get the green light multiple times over the past few years.
There are about 11 ETFs pending filing with the SEC, including BlackRock Inc., Grayscale Inc., WisdomTree Inc. and Cathie Wood's Ark Invest.
“The democratization that we've tried to provide for our clients has been democratization of access to innovation, both in the public markets and in pure innovation funds. And now with the venture in the private markets, Bitcoin is an extension, it's democratization, it's access. We think Bitcoin will be one of the most important assets in history,” Wood said in an interview on “Clamation Countdown” ahead of the SEC's announcement.
Watch: Valkyrie CIO Steven McClurg talks about a spot Bitcoin ETF
Valkyrie CIO Steven McClurg reacts to companies waiting for spot bitcoin ETF arbitration on “The Claman Countdown.”
The official announcement comes after Gensler's X account was “compromised” on Tuesday, falsely announcing his approval, which was then quickly retracted. The regulator is now working with authorities, including the FBI, to determine the root cause of the breach.
The SEC was fooled, X accounts were hacked, and the Spot Bitcoin ETF will not be approved.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler testifies to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 15, 2022. (Reuters/Evelyn Hochstein/Reuters Photo)
Bitcoin rose to as high as $47,000 before falling back and is up about 11% this year after rising 153% in 2023. John Todaro, a senior research analyst at Needham & Company who predicted the SEC approval, told FOX Business in December that a rise in prices could entice more retail investors to come off the sidelines.
Live cryptocurrency prices: HERE
Bitcoin rebounds early
“Once Bitcoin hits $50,000, which is a psychological point for a lot of retail investors, I think we'll start to see a wave of some of that capital coming back,” he said.
Bitcoin traded at an all-time high of $67,802.30 in November 2021 before falling to the $16,000-$17,000 range and suffering a lot of losses.
Following the SEC announcement, Ethereum rose more than 10% to above $2,500 as investors turned their attention to additional cryptocurrency ETFs.
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