Spot Bitcoin ETF Is "Inevitable," Says Former SEC Boss

During a recent interview with CNBC's "Last Call," former Securities and Exchange Commission boss Jay Clayton opined that the approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is "inevitable."

"The reason why I said that it's inevitable is that many of the questions that stood in the way of a Bitcoin ETF have been answered to many sophisticated parties' and many regulators' satisfaction."

The main issues 

During the interview, the former SEC Chair named multiple issues that were hindering the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF. Clayton pointed to the fact that more than 95% of Bitcoin trading used to be attributed to wash trading or other forms of manipulative trading. Moreover, high-quality data "wasn't really available."

One such report that gained significant attention was released by Bitwise Asset Management in March 2019. In this report, Bitwise suggested that up to 95% of Bitcoin trading volume reported on unregulated exchanges might be fake or due to wash trading. The company presented its findings to the SEC as part of its application process for a Bitcoin ETF.

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Moreover, there were questions about anti-money laundering, know-your-customer (KYC) rules, and other issues. 

However, now, the former regulator believes that that the Bitcoin market has matured. "A lot of those have been answered," Clayton said. 

Bitcoin's moment 

As reported by U.Today, the leading cryptocurrency recently managed to reclaim the $35,000 level due to a slew of Bitcoin ETF applications from such leading firms as Fidelity and Blackrock. 

Bitcoin funds captured 83.7% of the total $66 million investment last week, according to a CoinShares report. Solana saw significant inflows among altcoins, but Ethereum faced outflows due to ongoing concerns about its future.

Meanwhile, the ETH/BTC ratio has recently reached new yearly lows due to Bitcoin's growing sentiment.