The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has authorized NYSE Arca and Teucrium’s Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund.
The SEC announced the approval on its website Wednesday, adding Teucrium to a number of other Bitcoin futures ETF issuers. Teucrium and NYSE Arca filed the application by filing a 19b-4 form under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Currently approved Bitcoin futures ETFs filed by other companies were covered by the Investment Company Act of 1940, which followed a slightly different regulatory route for approval.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said on Twitter earlier this year that an approval of Teucrium’s application under the Securities Act of 1933 could potentially open the door for a spot bitcoin ETF. Proponents of crypto ETFs argued that “similar situations should be treated the same,” citing an argument from crypto company Grayscale, which has filed an application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Fund (GBTC) into an ETF.
To date, the SEC has not approved spot Bitcoin ETFs due to concerns about market manipulation.