• Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal anticipates the SEC will grant approval soon, as major financial firms have submitted robust ETF proposals.
• While Grewal doesn’t specify when a spot Bitcoin ETF will launch, there are expectations, including from JPMorgan, that it could become available by the end of the year or early 2024.

Amid all the developments surrounding the approval of the spot Bitcoin ETF, Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal stated that he is confident that a U.S. Bitcoin exchange-traded fund will arrive in the market soon after the defeat of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

I’m quite hopeful that these [ETF] applications will be granted, if only because they should be granted under the law,

Grewal said in an interview with CNBC. The SEC faced a significant legal setback as a judge ruled that there was no valid reason for the regulator to reject Grayscale’s request to transform its substantial GBTC bitcoin fund into an ETF. The SEC, in the past week, chose not to challenge this ruling by the crucial deadline, potentially opening the door for the approval of a Bitcoin-related ETF in the coming months.

I think that the firms that have stepped forward with robust proposals for these products and services are among some of the biggest blue chips in financial services.

Grewal added.

So that, I think, suggests that we will see progress there in short order.

However, Grewal is not sure when the spot Bitcoin ETF will hit the market. However, some top players like JPMorgan expect it to come by this Christmas or early January 2024. Grewal suggested that the SEC is now likely to grant approval for a Bitcoin ETF soon, underscoring the regulator’s unsuccessful attempt in court to prevent Grayscale from transitioning its GBTC Bitcoin fund into an ETF.

Spot Bitcoin ETF – Sooner Than Later

Bitcoin has quietly staged a remarkable comeback this year, surging approximately 72% after significant declines in 2022. Recent months have witnessed increased investor interest in the cryptocurrency, driven by expectations of the Federal Reserve concluding its ongoing cycle of interest rate hikes and mounting anticipation surrounding the upcoming Bitcoin “halving” event, set to reduce rewards to miners by 50%, thus restricting the coin’s supply.

A bitcoin ETF offers investors a means to obtain bitcoin exposure without directly buying it on an exchange. This convenience is particularly attractive to retail investors who seek to participate in the Bitcoin market without the need to possess the underlying asset.

Approval of a bitcoin ETF would likely benefit Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. Coinbase is a frequently included stock in investment portfolios designed to provide exposure to the world of cryptocurrencies.

Grewal expressed optimism about the possibility of more bitcoin ETFs receiving approval in the near future.

We think that other ETFs are going to be coming online soon enough as the SEC follows the law and is required to apply the law in a neutral way to the applications that are pending.

He said, adding:

We are quite excited that there are a number of developments we think that are just around the corner, or underway even as we speak, that will bring back investor and consumer interest in crypto,