Applications for the spot Bitcoin ETF got full approval from the SEC on Jan. 10 and started trading on Jan. 11.
Over a decade after the first application was filed, the crypto industry finally witnessed the Securities and Exchange Commission approve the first regulated spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States.
The spot Bitcoin ETF approval was a historic milestone for crypto, but the road was not smooth. It all started on July 1, 2013, when Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss filed the first application for a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States. However, despite the twins’ efforts and a back-and-forth with the SEC, the agency eventually rejected the application in 2017. The decision led finance and media pundits to declare that Bitcoin was not ready for the mainstream.
In the same year, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) debuted as an open-ended, private trust for accredited investors, and it received approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to trade publicly in 2015. While this was not an ETF, it eventually became the first publicly traded Bitcoin fund in the U.S. and was ultimately converted into a spot-based ETF.
