[April Fool’s!] SEC Drops the Bomb: Approves Bitcoin ETFs
VanEck and Bitwise will be launching Bitcoin ETFs early next month following an emergency meeting the SEC held Saturday.
![[April Fool’s!] SEC Drops the Bomb: Approves Bitcoin ETFs](https://www.financemagnates.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Bitwise-VanEck.jpg)
[April Fool’s!] In a shockingly sudden April fools 1st decision, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has made the decision to approve not one, but two applications for Bitcoin-based exchange traded funds (ETFs.) Early next month, Bitcoin ETFs will be launched by Bitwise Asset Management and investment management firm VanEck.
The decision to approve the ETFs follows more than six months of delayed decision-making; the SEC has postponed the date that it said a decision on the applications more than three times. The most recent of these delays was announced just last Friday, March 29th.
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Predictably, cryptocurrency markets have responded positively. In the time since the announcement, the total cryptocurrency market cap has added $13.8 billion; the price of Bitcoin increased from roughly $4080 to over $6000.
Rash Action or Rational Action?
However, an announcement posted just after midnight today, April 1st, explained that the SEC held an emergency meeting over the weekend to reconsider the decision following public outrage at yet another delay. According to a Reuters report, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton phoned the members of the Commission on Saturday morning to make the decision once and for all.
The move has been criticized as unorthodox and perhaps even unnecessary.
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“I believe Clayton was attempting to counteract the narrative that the American government is unable to act without shutdowns and other shades of political chaos,” said Violet Baudelaire, professor of Economics and Public Policy at MIT, in an email to Finance Magnates. “However, this kind of rash action could send the message that the SEC is perhaps not acting with as much caution as it should be exercising.”
VanEck’s most recent Bitcoin ETF application was filed in January. Bitwise originally filed its application last month on February 15th with the condition that the SEC would take just 45 days to reach a decision on the application. The Commission was permitted to extend its decision-making time to 90 days if needed.
Last Friday, the extension was indeed deemed necessary–a presentation that Bitwise gave to the SEC last week caused major shockwaves around the industry as the firm postulated that 95% of reported Bitcoin trading volume is fake.
The cryptocurrency community’s response to the sudden approval has been mixed. Some believe that the launch of the ETFs is the cure to the bear market that has plagued the industry for months, while others believe that the ETFs are only the latest iteration of centralization on the Bitcoin network.
Clayton himself has remained publicly silent on the matter so far, save for four astounding words: “Happy April Fool’s Day.”
It would be a good idea to put a big disclaimer at the end of the article to explain that this is an April Fool’s joke. The line at the end may not be enough for a financial news magazine to be honest!
More speculation will increase liquidity but value comes from the work that crypto does, And Bitcoin may disappoint compared to the altcoins.
I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT A SUCH SERIOUS PUBLICATION CAN DO AN April Fool’s joke LIKE THIS. PUT THE BLAME ON YOU!
I was going to follow this channel until I wasted my time reading something that is a joke. Smh.
😠😠😠😡😡😡💩💩💩💩😷😷
Shouldn’t this be illegal? How can a “reputable” financial website give out false financial information, and then pass it off as an April Fools joke? To me, this shows just how scared financial institutions are of bitcoin. And Google publishes the article with no filtering. Unbelievable and not funny! Hope there’s a backlash.
This is hilarious and even more so watching people get butthurt over it. ” why you so sensitive?”
Robinhood is giving us shit like this?
What a dumb bitch!
Do you realize this fake story is the first one that comes up on Google’s page when you search “Bitcoin”? Do you have any idea how irresponsible it is to post something like this?
Do you have any idea how irresponsible it is to believe ANYTHING the internet says (especially on April 1st!)?
Agreed.
untrustworthy media!
Bahahahahaha! I love it. Finance news is always so serious. It’s great to see some entertainment mixing in. Big Kudos to the writer, Rachel McIntosh. I bought it all the way until the last line, and then I laughed out loud. Reminds me of the April Fool’s joke Vitalik played years ago when he said the Ethereum Foundation was relocating to North Korea. Rachel McIntosh – you’re my new hero. Thanks for that!
I’d be careful guys, shit like this could get you 10b-5’d!
What is this a reference to? What is 10b-5’d? I’m trying to figure out what kind of punishment you’re describing.
SEC Rule 10b-5 (17 C.F.R. 240.10b-5) prohibits any act or omission resulting in fraud or deceit in connection with the purchase or sale of any security.
problem is, there is no difference between this april fools article, and most articles that are written any day of the week.
Any idiot can post any BS they want, and Google News will spread it to the world.
No guys, it’s not funny. There are tons of April Fool’s joke in the net today really funny, not this. They published a fake SEC twitter… and no: finance is not an area in which you should share fake news and no… no Finance Magnates… I’m sorry but humor is not for everyone, sure not for nerds.
Lots of sore bottoms after reading this article!
SEC should apply a penalty now on you for market manipulation via fake news
It is beyond stupid to play jokes like this regarding the price and prospects of a widely traded asset. I’m shocked that this article is still active.
Anyone else find it odd, and in poor taste, that Google had this article “pinned” on its home page all day long? Makes me wonder what their agenda is… not really, they’re making it pretty obvious.
apruh fooooz! 6k last night, sec approval rofl sack o’ *icks without taxing 51% yeah right lol, EMERGENCY MEETING hahahahaha, on a brighter note, cryptocurrency is doing just fine without the help of the sec, or fiance magnets, lol.
yeah it’s not funny, but anyone who actually thinks bitcoin would go up to $6000 overnight without a week of drama (stages, ups and downs) deserves to be joked. Who would be buying that massive amount of bitcoin, across all exchanges? It’s not very possible, especially over Sunday night when half of the world is sleeping. That line itself gave the joke away!
Anyone that believed this just made 15% overnight
better lucky than smart
So This April Fool’s joke is responsible for the sudden spike in cryptocurrency price.
The SEC is gonna come calling on this one. I hope none of the authors, or for that matter anyone affiliated with this site, stood to gain from a price jump in BTC.
I hope the SEC does, this is no different than saying X company buys Y…of course algos picked this up re: Bloomberg, but as they do when anything hits the wire in the ‘traditional market’
Source: Coinmarketfap
GENIUS!
“The prank, which first emerged on the website Finance Magnates, claimed”. April Fool’s joke may be behind Bitcoin price spike
http://flip.it/jlMQPx