The US securities regulator said that it would need more time to consider the proposed rule changes from VanEck and decide on its Bitcoin ETF application.
On Wednesday, April 28, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its decision to delay the approval of the VanEck Bitcoin ETF. It means that America’s institutional investors will have to wait a bit longer in getting access to the Bitcoin derivative product.
Also, as per the latest filing from the SEC, the approval timeline now moves to June 17. VanEck along with the Chicago Boards Options Exchange (CBOE) applied for the Bitcoin ETF last December 2020. In its recent filing, SEC’s assistant secretary J. Matthew DeLesDernier said:
“The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change and the comments received”.
After its acknowledgment, the SEC typically takes around 45 days to render its decision. Although the current window ends on May 3, the SEC has decided to extend the timeline further.
There’s a lot of optimism currently regarding the approval of the first Bitcoin ETF in the US market by the end of this year. Also, hopes are high from the newly appointed SEC Chairman Gary Gensler who is reportedly having a pro-crypto stand.
Before getting approved as the SEC chairman earlier this year, Gensler has taught courses on cryptocurrencies and blockchain at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
SEC Likely Wants Some More Time
It’s a very short period of time that Gensler took the office of the SEC. analysts believe that Gensler would need some more time to evaluate the state of cryptocurrencies and their working in America. Speaking to The Fortune, Mohit Bajaj, director of ETFs for WallachBeth Capital said:
”It sounds like they just want to take a deeper dive into the product before giving a firm decision, which is probably the best course. They want to ensure the end customer is not at any unknown risks.”
VanEck is one of the three Bitcoin ETF filings that has been currently acknowledged by the SEC.
“We hope that the commission approves Bitcoin ETFs and recognizes that VanEck submitted the earliest active 19b-4 among all issuers. A Bitcoin ETF isn’t controversial anymore,” said Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital-asset strategy at VanEck, speaking on this development.
As of writing this article, Bitcoin has been trading at a price of $54,429 with a market cap of just over $1 trillion. After last week’s price crash below $48,000, BTC has bounced back strongly once again.
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