QCP Capital BlackRock unlikely to approve Bitcoin spot ETF soon.

QCP Capital, a trading firm, has stated in its latest market update on June 22 that it is unlikely that Bitcoin (BTC) will see its first spot price exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States anytime soon. The firm has warned over spot ETFs’ prospects, and notes that the current makeup of the U.S. regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), means that spot ETFs getting the go-ahead remains unlikely. This would be the first of its kind, as all such spot ETF applications have been rejected so far by the SEC. The picture is complicated by the current SEC Chair, Gary Gensler, under whose leadership the body delivered lawsuits against major crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. QCP says that with Gensler as head of the SEC, it is not confident of the actual ETF approval happening in the near-term, and this provides food for thought. However, researchers note that BlackRock has seen just one SEC rejection out of 576 applications so far. QCP adds that institutional involvement in the Bitcoin space is destined to increase, and over the next months and years we will see further steps in that direction, despite the ETF setback.

GBTC return to strength continues

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has rebounded from its shares trading near 50% below BTC/USD. On June 22, its discount to BTC spot, also known as discount to net asset value (NAV), reached its smallest levels of 2023 at 33.45%, according to data from monitoring resource CoinGlass. QCP continued that its recent performance marked its “sharpest” recovery since late 2020, when Bitcoin broke out to beat its prior all-time highs from 2017. Knock-on effects from BlackRock have appeared beyond BTC price performance itself.