VanEck’s CEO Urges the SEC to Approve a Bitcoin ETF Due to High Customer Demand

Jan van Eck, the CEO of the giant investment manager, VanEck, has asserted that the firm’s customers have a growing appetite for a Bitcoin ETF. This comes amid the company’s frequent attempt to have an exchange-traded product approved in the US.

• During a recent interview with CNBC, van Eck spoke about the company’s plans to enter the cryptocurrency space through an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of bitcoin.
• The firm has already filed for a few such ETFs. It withdrew the previous attempts, and the latest one, filed earlier this year, has been delayed twice by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
• While waiting for the SEC’s final decision, VanEck filed another draft prospectus for a BTC futures mutual fund earlier this week.
• Called the “Bitcoin Strategy Fund,” it will invest in BTC futures contracts, pooled investment vehicles, and ETPs with exposure to the primary cryptocurrency.
• However, it will not invest directly in BTC, which is why VanEck’s CEO believes the SEC should focus on approving a Bitcoin ETF. He outlined a significant demand coming from customers for such a product.

• “We really think the SEC should approve a Bitcoin ETF.” – he noted.

• However, he believes that the Chairman of the Commission is not “putting it high on his agenda. It is what it is. The SEC is just not moving fast on this.”
• Van Eck also took a stab at the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, saying that the only alternative to a BTC ETF in the US is a “closed-end fund that trades it at a 40% premium or 20% discount.”

• “Bitcoin futures … aren’t any better because of the shape of the futures curve. There’s a futures-based fund that underperformed bitcoin by 22% last year and 8% this year. Can’t predict what the SEC will do, but investors are really asking for a more efficient access vehicle.” – he concluded.