US SEC begrudgingly approves Bitcoin trades but warns investors it's a 'speculative, volatile asset that's also used for ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion, and terrorist financing'

pcgamer.com:

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) following years of opposition—though not without stern warnings about the «myriad risks» of investing in cryptocurrency. The news was greeted with enthusiasm by crypto-lovers and has led to a minor spike in Bitcoin's value, with one Bitcoin being worth around $44,000 on 8 January and at the time of writing just over $47,000.

The approval relates specifically to 11 spot Bitcoin ETPs, asset portfolios which can be purchased by anyone from ordinary investors to 401(k)s to pension plans. This is for sure a big push into the investment mainstream, and comes after the SEC resisted various earlier efforts to approve Bitcoin trades because of the potential for fraud and market manipulation. This has led to various court cases between the SEC and crypto firms, most of which have gone against the SEC, a particularly notable example being last year's victory for Grayscale (a Bitcoin trading firm that wanted to offer an ETP) in which the ruling called the SEC's reasoning arbitrary.

The SEC's approval should therefore be seen as something of a begrudging one, and the statement issued alongside it does nothing to dispel that interpretation. «Though we’re merit neutral, I’d note that the underlying assets in the metals ETPs have consumer and industrial uses,» said SEC Chair Gary Gensler, «while in contrast bitcoin is primarily a speculative, volatile asset that’s also used for illicit activity including ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion, and terrorist financing.

»While we approved the listing and trading of certain spot bitcoin ETP shares today, we did not approve or endorse bitcoin. Investors should remain cautious about