After Vaneck and Solid X recently pulled back their plans for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Chicago’s CBOE exchange, the push by Bitwise and NYSE Arca could well result in the first Bitcoin ETF in the US market. The plans are now noted by media including Coindesk.
Few took notice
An application to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was filed by NYSE Arca on 10 January, but went largely unnoticed. It was not listed on the SEC website, possibly because of the current shutdown of US government functions. NYSE Arca is a leading exchange for ETFs.
Method to counter manipulation
According to the application, prices will be “weighted such that bitcoin prices from exchanges with a greater amount of the trading volume in the prior hour are weighted more heavily than bitcoin prices from exchanges with lesser amounts of volume”.
The purpose of this is to prevent fraud and manipulation.
In previous rejections of ETF applications, the SEC has expressed concern about market manipulation, writes Coindesk.