During a Monday appearance on Bloomberg TV, Jan van Eck, chief executive officer of investment management giant VanEck, opined that the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is unlikely in the near future.

Last March, VanEck filed for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund that could track the price of Bitcoin directly. However, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shot down the proposal in November, citing concerns about regulatory uncertainty and market manipulation. 

Prior to that, the regulator greenlit several futures-based Bitcoin ETFs, giving the market a short-term boost. However, it has so far refused to approve an ETF that will directly invest in the largest cryptocurrency. 

Grayscale, the largest crypto asset manager, has been very vocal about the SEC’s reluctance to allow it to cover its flagship fund into a spot ETF. The company indicated that it could take the regulator to court over its refusal to approve such a product. As reported by U.Today, it also recently announced a big ad campaign to support its cause.

In March, van Eck complained that a spot Bitcoin ETF was being “held hostage” by the SEC during an appearance on a podcast hosted by cryptocurrency evangelist Anthology Pompliano. He believes that the formidable regulator is waiting to get jurisdiction over the crypto market, which is something that they don’t have as of now. 

The executive also complained that the regulatory dialogue about crypto was not very healthy, pointing to the fact that there’s plenty of diverging views on stablecoins. 

In a Barron’s piece published in February, van Eck argues that stablecoins are more like funds than banks.