Crypto-friendly Reps. Nickel and Flood urge SEC to give the green light to options on spot bitcoin ETFs

Reps. Wiley Nickel, D-N.C., and Mike Flood, R-Neb., exhorted the Securities and Exchange Commission to approve the listing and trading of options on spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds amid delays.

In a letter sent to SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Wednesday, the two lawmakers pointed to the agency's January approval of spot bitcoin ETFs, which has so far brought in billions of dollars. Axios first reported the news on Wednesday.

"We urge you, without delay, to either approve options on spot bitcoin ETPs or to provide an explanation for the Commission's difference in treatment between options for Bitcoin futures ETFs — which are currently trading — and options for the spot bitcoin ETPs," Reps. Flood and Nickel wrote. The two members of Congress previously wrote a letter in September with other lawmakers urging Chair Gensler to approve spot bitcoin ETFs.

Over the past few months, the SEC has delayed deciding whether to allow the listing and trading of spot bitcoin ETF options. Multiple exchanges, including Cboe Exchange, Inc., BOX Exchange LLC, MIAX International Securities Exchange LLC, Nasdaq ISE, LLC, and NYSE American LLC, have since filed to allow options trading on the newly approved spot bitcoin ETFs.

Is there a difference?

The SEC's eventual approval of spot bitcoin ETFs earlier this year was pushed in part by a ruling over the summer by three judges in a D.C. court that decided that the SEC had to re-review Grayscale's bid for a spot bitcoin ETF after the asset management firm sued the agency last year following the rejection of its plan for the conversion of its flagship GBTC fund.

The judges said at the time that the SEC's denial of Grayscale's proposal for a spot bitcoin ETF was "arbitrary and capricious because the Commission failed to explain its different treatment of similar products."

Reps. Nickel and Flood pointed to the ruling, calling the SEC's delay in approving options on spot bitcoin ETFs a similar situation.

"It has been almost two months since NYSE applied for the listing of options on spot Bitcoin ETFs," they wrote. "In the case of Bitcoin Futures ETFs, the SEC permitted options to be listed and begin trading the very next day. Why the difference in treatment?"