Stung by a Judge, SEC Rethinks View on Crypto Surveillance (1)

First came the judge’s rebuke. Then fresh Securities and Exchange Commission research surfaced purporting to allay doubts about whether trading in Bitcoin could ever be effectively monitored.

Altogether it led the chief US securities regulator to reverse course Wednesday and deliver a landmark decision clearing the way for a slew of new spot exchange-traded funds tracking the digital currency.

Spanked by an appeals court that asked in August how one class of Bitcoin ETFs could be cleared but not another, the SEC was all but forced to capitulate. The agency backed away from its opinion that no regulated exchange had ...