Yesterday's highly awaited decision from a federal appeals court appears to have paved the way for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to finally be launched. This news sent Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) rocketing higher yesterday, with the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization briefly breaching the $28,000 level. Today, cooler heads and some apparent profit-taking have led Bitcoin to settle around the $27,200 level as of this writing.

A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals panel in Washington effectively overturned the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) decision to halt the development of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund by crypto asset manager Grayscale. The SEC views futures-based ETFs (which are currently allowed) as safer for investors. The SEC has suggested it will review the decision, but all eyes are now turning to which companies will be in line to launch a spot ETF first. 

Grayscale's proposal appears to be one that should have been approved, at least according to Judge Naomi Rao, who inserted some interesting comments in the court's opinion on this matter. The judge suggested that the "denial of Grayscale's proposal was arbitrary and capricious because the Commission failed to explain its different treatment of similar products." In essence, the court failed to see how a spot Bitcoin ETF would be substantially different from a futures-based ETF (which are currently allowed), given the close correlation of the underlying assets of both products. 

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Source Fool.com