Happy Friday. This week’s updates below.

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Bitcoin ETF Rejected by SEC – an application to establish an ETF which would be based on a basket of Bitcoins was rejected by the SEC on March 10. The Winklevoss brothers, noted Bitcoin investorss, were the sponsors of the vehicle which was to be called the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust. In rejecting the proposal, the SEC stated that the Bitcoin markets are unregulated and that the exchange the ETF would be traded on (Bats BZX Exchange) would not be able to enter into “surveillance-sharing” agreements that would be able combat fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices in the Bitcoin market. We expect that there will be future ETF proposals submitted to the SEC and that as the cryptocurrency industry (and specifically the exchanges hosting Bitcoin exchange) becomes more developed, a Bitcoin ETF will at some time be approved for trading. The SEC release can be found here.

Bitcoin Hedge Funds Article – we recently wrote about Bitcoin/ AltCurrency / Cryptocurrency hedge funds.  We believe that this is a burgeoning asset class and we will begin to see more private fund products launched in this space in the coming months.

FINRA Proposal to Scrap Series 7 – last week FINRA filed a proposed rule change with the SEC that would eliminate the Series 7 exam in favor of a more “streamlined” representative-level qualification exam that would include a general knowledge exam and specialized knowledge exam. We have strong thoughts about FINRA’s use of their time to create a new regulatory structure for exams when there has been no specific mandate for this update (no one is asking for this and we don’t know what problem this complete revamp is solving). We also (personally) believe that FINRA could better spend its time focused on matters that its member firms are asking to be addressed. While we are all for streamlining at Federal Agencies and self-regulatory organizations, we believe that streamlining should be reasonable and should serve a purpose – I am not sure if there was a purpose to this, but I also have not read through the entire 619 page FINRA submission to the SEC.

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Bart Mallon is a founding partner of Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP and focuses his legal practice on the investment management industry. He can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.