The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just opened a new round of public comments about Wilshire Phoenix's bitcoin ETF.
According to a document shared yesterday by the SEC, Wilshire Phoenix and NYSE Arca Exchange have updated their application since they believe the regulator must take into account some new circumstances that might affect its decision on whether to approve or not this new investment instrument.
Particularly, Coinbase Custody will reportedly act as custodian of the trust's bitcoins. However, contrary to what was originally stated in the first request, Coinbase will confirm the availability of the assets used to secure the trust within five business days of the date of its monthly rebalancing.
According to the updated application, Wilshire will use the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (CMR CF BRR) to determine the NAV (net asset value) of the bitcoins in the fund.
Wilshire states that when gold ETFs were approved, the SEC focused on spot and futures markets despite the fact that gold is also traded in different market segments. Regarding the bitcoin ETF, the company representatives say:
"Focusing on the spot market is appropriate because the spot market is the market to which the particular ETP would look to determine its NAV."
The SEC has recently rejected Bitwise Asset Management's application to launch its own bitcoin ETF arguing that this investment tool does not comply with laws aimed at fighting market manipulation and other illegal activities.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.