Senator Elizabeth Warren: SEC was wrong in its spot Bitcoin ETF decision

Senator Elizabeth Warren asserted on Jan. 11 that U.S. securities regulators incorrectly made up our minds to approve scrape Bitcoin ETFs.

Warren wrote in a post on X:

“The [Securities and Exchange Commission] is imperfect on the legislation and imperfect on the coverage with respect to the Bitcoin ETF decision. If the SEC goes to let crypto burrow even deeper into our monetary machine, then it’s extra urgent than ever that crypto note primary anti-cash laundering rules.”

Warren’s precise complaints are unknown, and whether she can display cowl these disorders in elephantine in a future letter to the SEC is unclear.

However, the last piece of her declare appears to be like to imply for anti-cash laundering rules that might prolong beyond trade-traded funds particularly. Warren has been advancing legislation known as the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act since its reintroduction in July 2023. The contents of that invoice would note to the cryptocurrency trade in long-established.

Some members of the SEC seem like sympathetic to Warren’s war on crypto crime. Despite vote casting to approve scrape Bitcoin ETFs, SEC chair Gary Gensler famed crypto abuses, including crime and terrorism in his approval declare and told customers to be “cautious about the myriad dangers” spherical Bitcoin.

Dissenting SEC commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw extra harshly acknowledged that Bitcoin markets are “marred by fraud and manipulation” and lack of oversight.

Law does no longer require SEC to approve or reject ETFs

Warren’s criticism of ETFs obtained big backlash on social media. Many commenters suggested that a ruling referring to Grayscale‘s ETF utility indirectly led the SEC to approve numerous scrape Bitcoin ETFs. That ruling first and main appears to be like to counter Warren’s recommendation that the SEC used to be “imperfect on the legislation.”

However, the discontinue end result of the Grayscale case did no longer require the SEC to approve any fund. Gensler acknowledged that the discontinue end result of Grayscale’s correct case used to be one element that made approval of scrape Bitcoin ETFs the “most sustainable path forward” but did no longer instruct that the SEC used to be required to self-discipline approvals.

Grayscale’s ruling required the SEC to study its scrape Bitcoin ETF utility. The court docket also chanced on that the SEC had did not display cowl its reasoning for rejecting the utility in gentle of outdated Bitcoin futures ETF approvals.