The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), whose main mission is to protect investors, has given funds from industry giants such as BlackRock, Invesco and Fidelity, as well as smaller rivals such as Valkyrie, the green light to start trading from Thursday.
The approvals represent a rare reversal by the SEC after more than a decade of opposition, since Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss first proposed a bitcoin ETF in 2013.
BlackRock's surprise request last June, followed by an appellate court ruling that described the denial of a different request as “arbitrary and outrageous,” sent the cryptocurrency skyrocketing amid expectations that US regulators would finally approve such funds.
Gary Gensler, Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said in a statement: “While we approved the listing and trading of Bitcoin funds on the exchange today, we did not approve or endorse the cryptocurrency.” And countless products associated with Bitcoin and products whose value is linked to cryptocurrencies.”
The decision comes one day after a false post on the SEC's account on X that claimed the agency approved ETFs. The regulator later said the account had been hacked, causing Bitcoin's price to fluctuate widely.
Bitcoin briefly rose to $47,000, but erased all its gains to trade at $45,700 at 0622 GMT.
The price of Bitcoin more than doubled in 2023, after falling by more than 64 percent in 2022.
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