The news of Bitcoins surged further when The Winklevoss’ Twins applied for opening an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) for their owned Bitcoins. And then, it became a trending topic when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected this idea.

Against all expectations, The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) asked the SEC in a letter, to allow the Bitcoin ETFs, as they feel these are no different to any other normal exchange-trade funds.

Earlier this year, the SEC said that for launching Bitcoin ETFs, it is firstly necessary to address significant investor protection issues. How the bitcoins would be stored, priced and protected would be a big concern. The CBOE is confident that these issues can be addressed within the existing framework for commodity-related funds related to valuation, liquidity, custody, arbitrage and manipulation.

Nonetheless, the SEC is not on the same terms with this as CBOE. They are concerned about the volatility, prices, hacker attacks on crypto-exchanges, and lack of agreement among governments on the topic of cryptocurrencies. Hence, the SEC has rejected dozens of proposals pertaining to Bitcoin ETFs, including an application by the CBOE regarding launching such funds.

The CBOE has put forward a solution in the form of a suggestion that the SEC must consider cryptocurrency related matters separately, examining them on a product-to-product basis. They believe that Bitcoin exchanges are liquid enough and this would help the working of these funds. According to them, with the increase in volume of Bitcoins the overall community appears more as a traditional system and they believe that the spot market is capable of supporting a “Bitcoin ETP [Exchange Trade Product]”.

This statement has created a situation of contradictions as well as attracted great media interest. As cryptocurrencies are now a global trend and more of a phenomenon, it is obvious to create great fuss in the community once a decision is finalised. While the Bitcoin community expects that SEC accepts this proposal, the investors worldwide are keenly looking forward to the end result as it could largely impact perceptions of governments as well as organisations for accepting Bitcoin.