The CEO of Osprey Funds — the issuer of over-the-counter Bitcoin trust OBTC —isn’t holding his breath for a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the United States this year.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre and Seana Smith on July 19, Greg King said he believes that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the leadership of Gary Gensler has so many things on its plate in 2021 that a BTC ETF approval is unlikely to make the cut.
King recalled the hype in the crypto industry surrounding Gensler’s appointment, who, while fairly noncommittal in his statements about crypto regulation thus far, is nonetheless well-known for his work teaching courses on blockchain at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in recent years.
“You saw a flurry of filings, from established companies to sort of newcomers, chasing that Bitcoin ETF idea,” said King. The CEO has himself been in conversation with SEC staff for several years, as Osprey — the…