In a document released by the SEC, commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda supported the approval, while Caroline Crenshaw and Jaime Lizarraga opposed it. However, it was Gensler’s vote that ultimately led to the approval of these products.
Interestingly, Peirce is a well-known advocate for the cryptocurrency industry, while Gensler remains openly skeptical about the crypto market. In fact, just the day before, Gensler took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his criticism towards cryptocurrencies, emphasizing their inherent risks and volatility. He also made it clear that the SEC’s approval of the Bitcoin ETF does not equate to the approval of Bitcoin itself.
It’s worth noting that on the first day of trading, these approved ETFs saw a total volume of $4.5 billion, but the stock price experienced a noticeable decline.