The Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to allow the first U.S. Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund to begin trading in a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency industry, according to people familiar with the matter.
The regulator isn't likely to block the products from starting to trade next week, said the people, who asked not to be named while discussing the decision.
Unlike Bitcoin ETF applications that the regulator has previously rejected, the proposals by ProShares and Invesco Ltd. are based on futures contracts and were filed under mutual fund rules that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said provide "significant investor protections."
A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment, as did an official at ProShares.
Bitcoin almost touched $60,000, the highest since April, while futures on crypto-linked stocks rallied in U.S. premarket trading. The largest cryptocurrency by market value has rallied almost 90% in three months and is closing in on the record high of $64,869 set earlier this year.
Barring a last-minute reversal, the fund launch will be the culmination of a nearly decade-long campaign by the $6.7 trillion ETF industry.
Advocates have sought approval as a confirmation of mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies since Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twins best known for their part in the history of Facebook Inc., filed the first application for a Bitcoin ETF in 2013.
A Long Wait
Approval has for years been out of the grasp of issuers who, amid myriad false signs of progress and outright rejections, have tried to get a variety of different structures cleared for trading.
