On Friday, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States dismissed the proposed carbon-neutral ETF or exchange-traded fund given by One River Asset Management. One River proposed to list and trade the ETF on the NYSE Arca stock exchange, which is under the ownership of Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE.N). But the Commission cited fraud prevention as a reason for rejecting the proposal.
According to a regulator in Wall Street, One River’s proposed Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Trust did not meet the standards required by national stock exchanges that are designed to fend off fraudulent and unscrupulous activities and protect the interests of investors and the public at large. On the other hand, the Commission emphasized that its disapproval of One River’s proposal is not based on an assessment of the value and utility of bitcoin and blockchain technology as an investment or an innovation.
While the Commission has given a green signal to many bitcoin ETFs, it has rejected or delayed all other spot bitcoin ETFs, such that that proposed by GlobalX, Fidelity, SkyBridge and NYDIG. For a national securities exchange to meet its obligations, it is required to show that its all-inclusive surveillance-sharing agreement with a regulated crypto market of a significant size pertaining to the underlying BTC assets. According to the proposal, One River sought to offset BTC’s carbon footprint by paying an amount for retirements of carbon credits that’s equal to the daily approximate carbon emissions from the bitcoins in possession of the trust.
