The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to extend the review period for the proposed Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
According to the announcement in the early morning of November 16th, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to postpone two proposed Bitcoin spot ETFs by Hashdex and Grayscale’s Ethereum futures ETF.
Both of these proposals were submitted to the SEC in September. The SEC has until November 17th to make a decision on both proposals. However, the SEC has decided to take more time to consider the proposals before making a decision.
Additionally, the postponement of Grayscale’s Ethereum futures ETF by the SEC is peculiar, given that the commission approved a series of ETH futures ETFs in October. The reason for this could be the ongoing legal disputes between the SEC and Grayscale, the company that won a lawsuit against the Securities Commission in August. Grayscale subsequently filed applications to convert its Bitcoin and Ethereum trusts into spot ETFs.
ETFs have been a driving force behind the cryptocurrency market’s growth from late October to the present, especially with major financial players like BlackRock leading the way. However, the SEC has yet to approve a Bitcoin spot ETF, arguing that the cryptocurrency market is still rife with manipulation and fraud, posing a threat to investors. A notable example is someone impersonating BlackRock to submit an application for an XRP ETF in Delaware.
The SEC’s postponement of Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF proposal has shattered previous predictions from analysts at Bloomberg. They anticipated a timeframe from November 9 to 17 for the SEC to approve a batch of 12 Bitcoin spot ETF proposals under consideration, aiming to ensure fairness. There were signals suggesting that the SEC was preparing legal actions to greenlight Bitcoin ETFs.
