Ex-SEC Official Answers if  the Current SEC Will Approve Bitcoin ETF Application

Former SEC official John Reed Stark took to his Twitter handle and penned a long post explaining why the current SEC is unlikely to grant approval for a Bitcoin spot ETF application. Many in the industry are curious about the possibility of the SEC approving the recent flood of Bitcoin spot ETF applications

However, Stark said that the regulatory landscape could undergo a significant transformation after a future election. The sentiment surrounding crypto regulations has taken a more partisan turn within the SEC, a surprising shift considering crypto’s bipartisan status in its earlier days.

He mentioned that in 2017, notable figures like President Donald Trump, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters all agreed that crypto assets carried risks. This thought evolved as Republican-appointed SEC Chair Jay Clayton started the agency’s crypto crackdown, despite its non-partisan nature initially.

Looking ahead to the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, the crypto regulatory environment could undergo a major shift. Should a Republican candidate come to power, the appointed SEC officials might make some changes: 

1) Decrease significantly the SEC’s crypto-enforcement efforts, probably filing mostly fraud cases, shifting efforts away from charging pure registration violations (such as the failure of a crypto-trading platform to register as an exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing firm)

2) Become far more receptive to approving a bitcoin spot ETF and far more likely to take other significant crypto-friendly regulatory actions

He highlighted that if a Republican becomes President, it might lead to a significant change. The current SEC Chair, Gary Gensler, could leave his position, and Hester Peirce, a senior Republican Commissioner also known as “crypto-mom,” might become the acting Chair. 

Stark wrote, If @HesterPeirce becomes acting Chair of the SEC, given her lengthy track record of dissent and opposition to most crypto-related SEC actions, the world should expect that most U.S. SEC crypto-related enforcement and most crypto-related SEC disruption would grind to a screeching halt.