The prospects of a Bitcoin Exchange-Trust Fund approval this year were slashed after it was revealed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may not approve such actions.
Bloomberg analyst James Seffyat, in a post on X, said the recent actions of the regulators show that it doesn’t intend to approve any ETF this year. Particularly, the analyst mentioned that the Wall Street regulator recently delayed two ETF filings – ArkInvest and 21Shares ETF filings.
What has raised the most speculation is that the SEC chose to leapfrog other pending second deadlines to delay the ARK 21Shares ETF filing. According to the analyst, there is a possibility the SEC will delay all other pending filings in the coming days. BlackRock, Bitwise, VanEck, Invesco, Wisdomtree, Fidelity and Valkyrie ETF filings are all due in October.
This may put the hammer down for any hopes of an ETF approval this year? If they went on Ark/21 shares already, we may see delays on all the other filings today too? BlackRock, Bitwise, VanEck, Invesco, Wisdomtree, Fidelity & Valkyrie a all due in mid Oct … pic.twitter.com/XiFbxIrIRK
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) September 26, 2023
On what could have prompted the early delay, the analyst stated that the regulator may be trying to clear its table before the upcoming U.S. Federal Government shutdown. The SEC is expected to furlough 90% of its workforce and suspend its actions once the shutdown starts on October 1.
However, the analyst also hinted that the recent U.S. Congress letter to the SEC might have motivated the action. Per details of the letter, Congress asked the regulator to discontinue any discriminatory action against Bitcoin ETFs.
An ETF approval is heavily anticipated in the crypto community as many believe it would spur a recovery for the crypto market. In addition, many think it would also increase participation in the crypto ecosystem as ETFs would give investors in the traditional market exposure to crypto assets.
However, Seffyat’s recent statements mirror a sentiment shared by many analysts in the crypto space. Even though the Grayscale victory against the SEC spurred hopes of a Bitcoin ETF launching this year, the actions of the SEC have shown otherwise.
Furthermore, the high number of traditional financial institutional giants filing for a Bitcoin ETF also inspired hopes of possible approval. However, the SEC has been equally stringent against their applications.
