Bitcoin needs to be ‘better regulated’ to trade on major exchanges, says SEC Chairman

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said that Bitcoin needed to be strongly regulated before it could be traded on a major exchange. He also warned investors to be wary of their investment in the digital asset until those regulatory changes are put in place. Clayton made these comments during the ninth Delivering Alpha conference organized by CNBC.

Clayton during his address said,

“If [investors] think there’s the same rigor around that price discovery as there is on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange … they are sorely mistaken. We have to get to a place where we can be confident that trading is better regulated.”

The comments of the SEC chairman comes on the heels of VanEck and SolidX withdrawing their Bitcoin ETF proposal from the SEC review. The Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was seen as a major breakout decision if approved and would have given a much-needed mainstream push. The addition of Bitcoin futures on the CME was the closest that Bitcoin had come to be listed on a mainstream exchange.

Clayton has been quite vocal about giving retail investors greater access to public markets as he said,

“If the growth opportunities have shifted not all the way but to a substantial extent into our private markets and ordinary investors don’t have access to them, that’s not good. The question is, what do we do about it?”