CBOE is Optimistic yet Cautious about Bitcoin ETF – President

Cboe Exchange

The president of CBOE Global Markets Inc., operators of Chicago Board Options Exchange, has expressed optimism about prospect his organization’s bitcoin ETF proposal despite discouraging signals coming from the SEC.

Chris Concannon, who is also the CEO at CBOE, told Bloomberg that his organization is taking necessary steps to become one of the first to get approval from the SEC to offer bitcoin EFTs. “As we chip away at their issues to make them less concerned, at some point they’ll be comfortable with an ETF,” he said.

Bitcoin ETFs have become a hot topic lately as the SEC has either rejected or postponed decision prominent proposals leading to speculations—speculations that have been blamed for the recent downturn in cryptocurrency markets.

For its part, the SEC is concerned about the unregulated nature of the cryptocurrency market. The regulators are particularly wary of possible manipulations and risk to investors. The commission notably rejected the proposal from the popular Winklevoss twins who own the Gemini crypto exchange. More recently, it postponed a decision on a similar and renewed proposal from SolidXPartners Inc.

Concannon understands that winning over the SEC could be an uphill task but is undeterred. The CBOE, according to him, is meeting all the requirements of the SEC and convenience them that a CBOE bitcoin ETF will be safe. One of those areas is the insurance for cryptocurrency investors. In its proposal, CBOE emphasized that it would insure the funds invested in bitcoin. It said that it will facilitate over-the-counter (OTC) trading among accredited investors.

In December of 2017, CBOE became the first major mainstream exchange to introduce bitcoin futures contracts followed a week later by CME. Although Concannon admits that the trade volumes have not progressed as expected, the bitcoin futures can play a major role in bitcoin ETFs. Since Futures are traded in regulated markets, ETFs can be based on them rather than on the unregulated cryptocurrency itself.

Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.