Non-profit Better Markets Says Bitcoin ETFs Approval Will “Harm Investors, Markets, and Financial Stability”

Brian Yue

Last updated:

January 11, 2024 10:03 EST | 2 min read

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Better Markets, a non-profit organization that advocates for financial reform and more stringent financial regulations, has come out in stout opposition to the newly-approved spot Bitcoin ETFs.

In a statement published on the Better Markets website on Wednesday, the organization’s CEO Dennis Kelleher blasted the SEC’s decision to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs, saying that the SEC’s actions will not change anything about “this worthless financial product.”

“Bitcoin and crypto are worse than the chips you can buy at a casino because at least the casino is regulated; the spot Bitcoin market is not and that’s what the ETF is going to be pricing,” Kelleher said in his statement. “There will be no SEC regulation or policing of Bitcoin.”

Kelleher continued by saying that Bitcoin and crypto still have “no legitimate use,” and will remain the “preferred product of speculators, gamblers, predators, and criminals,” while also continuing to be “cesspools of fraud, manipulation, and criminality.”

As a result of the SEC’s decision, American investors will have at least four levels of “false comfort,” Kelleher noted – the SEC’s approval, a trusted ETF investment vehicle, the involvement of trusted financial firms such as Blackrock and Fidelity, and a belief that Bitcoin ETFs will be regulated with investors in mind

Kelleher previously wrote a public letter to the SEC on January 5th calling for the rejection of Bitcoin ETF applications. In the letter addressed to SEC secretary Vanessa Countryman, Kelleher argued that spot Bitcoin ETFs would increase the potential risk of fraud, and would also enable the crypto industry to claim that its products are now U.S. government-approved.

Other Critics Chime In

In a statement posted on Wednesday, SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw wrote that the agency’s decision was “unsound and ahistorical.”

“I am concerned that these products will flood the markets and land squarely in the retirement accounts of US households who can least afford to lose their savings to the fraud and manipulation that appears prent in the spot bitcoin markets and will impact the ETPs,” Crenshaw said in her statement.

It remains to be seen how the SEC’s approval of Bitcoin ETFs will affect other countries’ timelines in launching crypto ETFs.

However, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, the country’s top financial regulator, said today that it will continue to prohibit financial institutions from releasing crypto ETFs.

An official from the Financial Services Commission told local media outlet Kyunghyang that the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. would not influence the Commission to change its crypto ETF policy, citing the stability of financial markets and unclear investor protections as reasons for its decision.