10 Years Later, Still No Bitcoin ETF — But Who Cares?

The journey of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) began over a decade ago with the first application submitted in July 2013, which was subsequently denied in both 2017 and 2018. Since then, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected numerous additional applications and has postponed decisions on others multiple times.

Recently, Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a surge of more than 6% as advocates celebrated a court ruling that deemed the SEC’s rejection of Grayscale’s ETF application as “arbitrary and capricious.” However, this boost was soon countered by the SEC’s decision to delay its ruling on seven pending Bitcoin ETF applications, resulting in a decline in price.

Joseph Kelly is the CEO of Unchained, a Bitcoin financial services company he co-founded in 2016, and he is an alumnus of the Texas McCombs School of Business.