tl;dr
VanEck, a prominent investment adviser and issuer of Bitcoin ETFs, has settled with the US SEC, agreeing to pay a $1.75 million civil penalty for failing to disclose a social media influencer's involvement in launching its Social Sentiment ETF. The SEC found that VanEck also failed to disclose impor...
VanEck, a prominent investment adviser and issuer of Bitcoin ETFs, has settled with the US SEC, agreeing to pay a $1.75 million civil penalty for failing to disclose a social media influencer's involvement in launching its Social Sentiment ETF. The SEC found that VanEck also failed to disclose important details about the influencer's participation and fee structure to the ETF's board. As part of the settlement, VanEck will implement measures to prevent similar disclosure failures. Additionally, VanEck recently announced a fee reduction for its new spot Bitcoin ETF, HODL, signaling ongoing fee wars among ETF issuers. The spot Bitcoin ETF market continues to attract significant investor interest, with steady inflows and fee cuts dominating the landscape.
In a recent development, VanEck, a registered investment adviser and issuer of Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), has settled with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.75 million to settle charges related to its failure to disclose the involvement of a social media influencer in the launch of its Social Sentiment ETF. According to the SEC’s order, VanEck launched the VanEck Social Sentiment ETF (BUZZ) in March 2021, designed to track an index based on “positive insights” from social media and other data. The index provider intended to engage a “well-known and controversial” social media influencer to promote the index during the ETF’s launch. The SEC’s order found that the asset manager failed to disclose the influencer’s planned involvement and the sliding scale fee structure to the ETF’s board when seeking approval for the fund launch and the management fee. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, the now Bitcoin Spot ETF issuer consented to the entry of the SEC’s order and agreed to a cease-and-desist order, as well as implementing measures to prevent similar disclosure failures.
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