U.S. lawmakers want SEC to ‘immediately’ approve applications for a Spot Bitcoin ETF

• Four House Reps. wrote a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Wednesday.
• They dubbed Spot Bitcoin ETF “indistinguishable” from Crypto Futures ETF.
• Bitcoin is still trading around the $26,000 level at writing on Wednesday.

All eyes are on Bitcoin today after the U.S. lawmakers urged the Securities & Exchange Commission to “immediately” approve applications it has received for a Spot Bitcoin ETF.

House Reps. wrote a letter to Gary Gensler today

On Wednesday, four members of the House Financial Services Committee wrote a letter to Gary Gensler in which they argued that a Spot Bitcoin ETF is not particularly different from a Crypto Futures ETF that the regulator has already approved.

And so, they urged Chair of the SEC in their letter to allow the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity and several others to list a Spot Bitcoin ETF.

SEC’s current posture is untenable moving forward … there is no reason to continue to deny such applications under inconsistent and discriminatory standards.

Chair Gary Gensler is scheduled to testify before the U.S. Congress today.

Grayscale recently secured a victory against the SEC

Last month, the U.S Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the Securities & Exchange Commission did not have an adequate reason to not let Grayscale convert its flagship bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund (find out more).

That ruling, as per the lawmakers, should be sufficient for Chair Gensler to get onboard with a Spot Bitcoin ETF. Their letter also read:

A regulated spot bitcoin ETP would provide increased protection for investors by making access to bitcoin safer and more transparent.

Members that wrote the letter on Wednesday include Reps. Mike Flood, Wiley Nickel, Tom Emmer, and Ritchie Torres. Bitcoin is still trading around the $26,000 level at writing.