Hester Pierce, the commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, recently stated that the regulator should have approved a Bitcoin trading fund (ETF) in the US long ago.

She emphasized that it was not the SEC’s job to approve or reject applications on the basis of the merits of the underlying investment itself.

She stated:

People have to make their own decisions about buying bitcoin.

SEC commissioner wants to approve Bitcoin ETF:

The commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) spoke about the prospects of the SEC approving a bitcoin trading fund (ETF) in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

Read:A new petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) demands that Ripple’s lawsuit be dropped

In crypto circles, Pierce is known as the “Mother of Crypto”.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not yet approved a Bitcoin ETF.

However, the industry is hoping things will change this year because the Securities and Exchange Commission has a new chair, Gary Gensler, who has taught crypto and blockchain courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Commissioner Pierce said:

I thought if we applied our standards as we applied them to other products, we would actually agree to one or more of them.

With each passing day, the rationale we used in the past for disapproval seems to be weakening.

The commissioner previously stated that she sees a double standard in the SEC when it comes to bitcoin products.

Reasons for refusal to approve Bitcoin ETF from SEC:

Pierce explained that the SEC is asking trading platforms and potential ETF sponsors of bitcoin for more collateral than it would for traditional stock-based products.

She told Pierce:

Organization-minded people, when faced with something new like this, say, Oh, wait a minute:

Read:Find out more about the CasperLabs Project Partnership and the Chainlink Project

The Bitcoin market looks a little different from the markets we are used to.

Added:

I think the markets have matured somewhat.

As she stated last May:

We’re seeing more interest from institutional actors than we’ve had in the past.

I think that will continue…as people are looking to diversify their portfolios, I think it is also likely that people will look more into the crypto space.

Pierce is not alone in believing this:

Investment banks and fund managers see the same perspective as the commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Read:The digital currency LINK hits its highest level in 3 months… Find out why it is rising!

An increasing number of them have already started investing in bitcoin or offering crypto services to clients, including:

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.

The commissioner emphasized that it is not the SEC’s job to approve or reject applications based on the merits of the underlying investment itself, especially if the trading platforms meet legal requirements to protect investors from fraud.

Noting that Bitcoin is now very decentralized.

As the number of nodes that participate in Bitcoin is large, the number of people who have an interest in maintaining this decentralized business is very large.

So will the SEC finally approve the Bitcoin ETF this year?

Read also:

Institutional Demand Continues…Bitcoin ETFs Now Hold Over 22,500 BTC

Ethereum (ETH) price rises to its highest level in two weeks