Today, the Proshares ETF was denied to no one’s surprise, as it was totally expected. It was always less likely than the CBOE ETF to be accepted because it settled in futures and not actual Bitcoin itself and yesterday Bitmex showed how it can totally manipulate the price of Bitcoin via the futures market. If any ETF is to be accepted, it will be one that settles in actual Bitcoin, not futures contracts.
China also tightened its grip on its cryptocurrency ban as it banned all crypto events even as it spent $3 billion last year funding blockchain startups. I suspect that the Chinese government doesn’t like something so de-centralized that they cannot fully control it. Also, I think that China is planning to launch its own crypto(or just use NEO) and wants competition out of the way so people have no alternative. I believe that these measures will fail and it will just push people more and more underground who want to trade in crypto.