The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the temporary suspension of trading in the securities Bitcoin Tracker One and Ether Tracker One exchange-traded notes. The decision is due to the confusion among market participants regarding these instruments, the agency noted.
The suspension of Bitcoin Tracker One or CXBTF and Ether Tracker One or CETHF commenced at 5:30 pm EDT September 9, and will terminate at 11:59 pm EDT September 20, 2018. These notes were issued by XBT Provider AB, a Swedish unit of British crypto firm CoinShares Holdings.
In its statement, the SEC noted that the broker-dealer application materials and certain trading websites characterize them as "Exchange Traded Funds," while other public sources characterize them as "Exchange Traded Notes." By contrast, the issuer characterizes them as "non-equity linked certificates."
CXBTF and CETHF are listed and trade on Nasdaq Stockholm exchange since 2015. They have recently been quoted in U.S. dollars on OTC Link operated by OTC Markets Group, Inc.
According to the Commission, the public interest and the protection of investors require a suspension of trading in the securities.
Bitcoin Tracker One was considered by some as the closest thing to an exchange-traded bitcoin fund. The SEC has been going on rejecting applications for bitcoin ETFs over concerns about fraud and manipulation of bitcoin markets.
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