SEC Commissioner: 'No Reason' Not to Allow Bitcoin ETF

US SEC Commissioner Heston Peirce - one of the four SEC commissioners currently considering the future of a potential Bitcoin ETF - publicly announced that there is "No reason" why the regulatory body would not allow the product to be approved.

Peirce, who recently published an official statement of dissent regarding the recent SEC rejection of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF, outlined her stance on the future of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds in an interview with CNBC's Cryptotrader host Ran Neuner.

Commissioner Peirce explained the reasoning behind the SEC's decision regarding the Winklevoss ETF in the CNBC interview, stating that the ETF rejection was the result of a 3-1 vote against approval and providing insight into the decision making.

"If you read which is relatively long, they go through an analysis and say that the rule change - which is how this is done, an exchange comes in and they say 'we have a rule change that we would like to put into place that would allow us to trade this product' - and so the majority of the Commission said that the proposed change was actually not consistent with the governing statute - in this case, that's the Securities and Exchange Act.".

Peirce maintains that the Winklevoss ETF is in accordance with the Securities and Exchange act, stating that she would have let it go forward.

The primary concerns expressed by the rest of the Commission, states Peirce, are with the nature of the Bitcoin market itself - which Peirce states is an example of the SEC reaching beyond its role as a regulatory body.

"Specifically in this case what I think did was look through to the underlying asset - in this case, that would be Bitcoin - ad they raised some concerns about the market for that underlying product we should have really focused on the market where the exchange-traded product would trade as opposed to focusing on the underlying Bitcoin market."

Discussing the upcoming VanEck Bitcoin ETF decision, Peirce emphasized the need for the SEC to increase the number of opportunities available to investors that allow them to participate in markers in a manner that is efficient and effective.

The future of the VanEck ETF, states Pierce, is positive.

"I take the position that actually the change that was put before us was consistent with the Exchange Act so there's no reason for us to not allow this product to go ahead.".