SEC to Decide the Fate of Another Bitcoin ETF Proposal This Week

The SEC will have to approve or reject Wilshire Phoenix's bitcoin and U.S. Treasury ETF by Wednesday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is once again poised to approve or reject a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, when Wilshire Phoenix's United States Bitcoin and Treasury Investment Trust meets a filing deadline Wednesday.

Wilshire Phoenix is the latest in a long line of companies hoping to secure SEC approval to list shares of a bitcoin-related ETF, and the only one that has an active application before the securities regulator.

Such an instrument would allow retail investors to get exposure to the bitcoin market without what some see as the added difficulty of owning bitcoin itself, potentially boosting market participation by individuals wary of bitcoin's stance as an unregulated investment.

While its chances are slim - the SEC has yet to approve any bitcoin ETF applications for a multitude of stated reasons - the company was filing updates to its proposal as recently as last week in efforts to bolster its application.

In rejecting ETFs previously, the SEC has pointed to concerns about market manipulation, the bitcoin market's overall size and a need for surveillance-sharing agreements as some factors it considers.

Wilshire is attempting to address these concerns by composing its ETF with a basket that automatically rebalances itself between U.S. Treasury bonds and bitcoin in response to the cryptocurrency's volatility.

Wilshire's Herrmann, reiterating a point often brought up in favor of bitcoin ETFs, told CoinDesk the product would allow a wider group of investors to safely access what is essentially a new asset class.

The bitcoin ETF Wilshire has proposed is actually one in a larger family of such products.

"We're confident we will have the bitcoin ETF soon, and the gold ETF won't be far behind. We are aiming to launch a lot more products as well," Herrmann said.