SEC Team Expands With New Derivatives Trading Director Weeks Before Bitcoin ETF Decision

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced a new Associate Director of the Office of Derivatives Policy and Trading Practices that is part of the Division of Trading Markets. The new appointee is Mark E. Wolfe, who has been working in the SEC for several years in the past. Just some days before a decision about a crypto exchange traded fund (ETF), the SEC released this information in a press release.

SEC Appoints New Associate Director

Mr. Wolfe has been working for over seven years at the SEC between 1999 and 2006. The first three years he worked as an attorney in the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations’ market oversight program. After it, he was a senior counsel in the Division of Enforcement and investigated cases that involved market manipulation.

This is quite important since the SEC has several times informed that one of the main reasons why it delayed bitcoin and crypto ETF was to the fact that the market could be easily manipulated.

Wolfe will be working in an office that is responsible for the implementation derivatives provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. Moreover, it will be administering Regulation SHO and other SEC rules that involve market manipulation.

Mr. Wolfe said that he is very happy to be returning to the agency.

“I am excited and honored to be provided with this opportunity and responsibility,”

he said.

“Over the course of my career, I have witnessed directly the important work that is being done by the staff in the Division of Trading and Markets and across the Commission, and I am excited to return to the agency.”

Wolfe is a graduated from the James Madison University and has a master’s degree from the University of Maine.

On September 30, the SEC will have to provide an answer on whether it will be approving or delaying the Bitcoin ETF presented by VanEck and SolidX. If approved, institutional investors would have the possibility to gain direct exposure to the virtual currency market. If the SEC delays the approval, the final decision will be taken before February 2019.