The founder and CEO of Volt Equity think that the US regulators have a good reason to be slow in approving a Bitcoin-related exchange-traded fund (ETF). CEO Tad Park voiced his support for the United States Securities Exchange Commission about the watchdog’s unwillingness to approve an ETF that may track BTC directly.
In an October 12, 2021, Fox Business interview, Park stated that SEC Chair Gary Gensler is pro-Bitcoin and also “a little bit misunderstood” subject to his perspective on cryptocurrency regulation in the United States.
Park mainly referred to the SEC’s investor protection worries, including that crypto custody providers are yet to assure the commission that they can guarantee proper asset protection:
“I can say ‘I have a gold ETF or a Bitcoin ETF,’ but I’m storing that gold in my basement. Is the SEC gonna allow that? Probably not. Unless companies can show they can custody it and address a lot of the issues Gensler specifically mentioned, it’s not gonna work.”
The CEO also said that over 50% of current crypto ETF applications with the SEC “are not even valid” since “they are not addressing what Gary Gensler is saying.”
Volt recently got approval for an ETF that comprises stocks in different crypto-related firms. Park insisted that Volt Equity’s cryptocurrency ETF does not offer direct exposure to BTC but instead tracks the huge Bitcoin-correlated companies, including Square, MicroStrategy, Twitter, Tesla, and BTC mining firms like Bitfarms.
Park noted:
“We try to get at what people are actually looking for, which is the correlation to Bitcoin’s price movement. These companies are really focusing on Bitcoin and get the majority of their income and revenues from Bitcoin. It makes sense that they tend to move along with Bitcoin’s price.”
Approved on October 1, 2021, Volt Equity’s Volt Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF tracks “Bitcoin Industry Revolution Companies,” a list of companies holding most of their net assets in Bitcoin or derive most of their earnings from BTC mining, lending, or transactions.
The SEC is yet to approve a pure Bitcoin ETF. On October 1, the Securities and Exchanges Commission extended the deadline for four BTC ETFs, including Valkyrie XBTO Bitcoin Futures Fund, Global X Bitcoin Trust, Kryptoin Bitcoin ETF, and WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust.
In August 2021, Gary Gensler suggested that the watchdog might soon be open to approving Bitcoin futures ETFs.
