Breaking news shows that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has set new deadlines for two Bitcoin exchange traded fund proposals that are now due to be decided on just prior to Halloween.
One is the VanEck SolidX proposal, which has been on the table (off and on) for over a year.
Two other applicants, Bitwise Asset Management and Wilshire Phoenix, have also submitted proposals, and the SEC has set an October 13 deadline for Bitwise’s proposition, while delaying the VanEck proposal to October 18.
In a formal statement, the SEC characterized its decision this way:
“The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider this proposed rule change.”
We’ve been reporting on the VanEck SolidX ETF proposal and other possible applications for many months.
That’s partly because of what a Bitcoin ETF might do to the markets – since ETFs allow for easier short-term trading, we could see Bitcoin popularity and value skyrocket with an eventual approval from the SEC.
However, we’ve also pointed out that the SEC’s most favored crypto commissioner known as “crypto mom” Hester Pierce has been equivocating about a timeline for this type of proposal:
“Definitely possible (sic) could be 20 years from now or it could be tomorrow,” Pierce told investors last December, according to reporting by Aaron Wood at Cointelegraph today. “Don’t hold your breath. The SEC took a long time to establish Finhub. It might take even longer to approve an exchange traded product.”
Still, any news of a BTC ETF is significant – we’ll continue to cover this important BTC narrative.
