Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola Profile picture
Writer & speaker. Author of The Case for People's QE (Polity). Coming soon: The Absolute Essentials of Banking (Routledge). Sings a bit too.

Jan 27, 2022, 11 tweets

SEC has denied Cboe BZX Exchange's request to approve its Bitcoin ETF proposal, saying it has not been able to prove that it would not be used for fraudulent purposes.

There appears to be a fundamental difference of opinion. BZX claims that Bitcoin's market cannot be manipulated. The SEC thinks it can.

And not only that Bitcoin's market can be manipulated, but that there is significant evidence of actual manipulation and fraud.

Hilariously, BZX's registration document fatally undermined its own argument.

Didn't it occur to them that the SEC might look askance at an ETF proposal whose own risk assessment said the trading platforms for its assets were unregulated, opaque, prone to fraud and security breaches, attractive to hackers and lacked basic protections?

You couldn't make this up.

Index methodology, totally resistant to fraud and manipulation.... 🤣🤣🤣

"Although the Sponsor raises concerns regarding fraud and security of bitcoin platforms in the Registration Statement, the Exchange does not explain how or why such concerns are consistent with its assertion that the Index is resistant to fraud and manipulation."

The full quote is even more entertaining. Their NAV calculation relies entirely on price feeds from platforms that they know might be manipulated and fraudulent. There are no proposals for risk management or mitigation.

So then BZX tries and fails to convince the SEC that the CME Bitcoin futures market is sufficiently large and significant for a surveillance-sharing agreement to mitigate the risk of manipulation and fraud in the spot market....

This didn't help

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