Ex-SEC lawyer predicted the regulator's refusal to approve bitcoin-ETFs

Former SEC lawyer John Reed Stark believes the current administration will not approve bitcoin-ETFs

If the US presidential election in 2024 is won by a representative of the Republican Party, the SEC may relax its regulatory requirements for the crypto market, John Reed Stark believes

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will not approve a spot bitcoin-ETF, former SEC lawyer John Reed Stark wrote on social network X

"I believe that the current SEC leadership will not approve an application for a spot bitcoin-ETF for several good reasons," he said.

But if the U.S. presidential election in 2024 is won by a Republican representative, the SEC will apparently relax its regulatory requirements for the crypto market and "will be much more receptive to approving a spot bitcoin-ETF," Stark said.

On Aug. 11, the SEC postponed a decision on Katie Wood's ARK 21Shares fund ARK 21Shares' bitcoin-ETF application.

The bankrupt crypto exchange Bittrex and the company's branch outside the U.S. will pay $24 million in a lawsuit the commission filed earlier over the cryptocurrency exchange offering services to U.S. customers without proper registration.

The SEC also said it plans to appeal part of the XRP judgment in the case against Ripple. The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, accusing the company of distributing about $1.3 billion worth of unregistered securities in the form of the platform's native tokens. On July 13, 2023, Judge Torres ruled that selling XRP directly to institutional investors was a violation of the regulator's rules, while offering it to retail investors on exchanges was not.