SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce Lashes Out At The Agency For Delaying Bitcoin ETF

01. Jul 2019 Posted by Akolkar B on News

Last week, Bitcoin has been on a northward spree as the world’s largest cryptocurrency hit its 2019-high on Wednesday, June 26, surging above $13,000 levels. It was for the 8th consistent session that Bitcoin price was climbing higher until today’s retracement.

In last week, Bitcoin has given over 40% returns moving from $9000 to up and above $13,000 levels. Bitcoin’s performance has again sparked off the debate for the arrival of Bitcoin ETF which has been dallied since long by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, popularly called as crypto mom for her pro crypto views, has again lashed out at the agency for staying hesitant of letting the Bitcoin derivative products come to the market.

In addition, commissioner Pierce expresses her concerns that the laggard regulatory framework and hostile nature towards crypto products will lead to crypto business going out of the country. She said: "[The SEC has the attitude of] 'I don't like that marketplace. Bitcoin markets are messy, so we don't like them. So we're not going to allow that product that's based on bitcoin to trade in our markets.'"

Pierce further added that there are many other “messy” financial products but the SEC has adopted an arcane attitude towards Bitcoin products. In another explosive revelation, Pierce said that her colleagues at the SEC reject the Bitcoin ETF proposal from the Winklessvoss twins only because they were not comfortable to deal with new ideas.

She said that this is not an healthy approach and may lead to stifling innovation. Pierce added: “The agency is old and has not historically been great with innovation. When a regulator is presented with something new, our safest response is to say, 'Sorry, why don't you stick with the old traditional stuff? Because we know how to regulate that.'

That's not a healthy state of being. We want people to come in with innovation. We want to see change, because those innovations ultimately serve investors well”.

While rejecting the earlier proposals SEC has always put the onus on the proposer saying they have failed to convince the agency on how they will be preventing market manipulation.