The US Securities and Exchange Commission has postponed its verdict on Bitwise’s request to incorporate staking into its Ether exchange-traded fund and on Grayscale’s XRP ETF proposal, which experts had anticipated.
The SEC announced on May 20 that it required an additional 45 days to finalize its judgment on Bitwise’s request to “evaluate the proposed regulation change and the concerns raised within.” The agency was required to either reach a decision or postpone its judgment by May 22.
Additionally, the agency deferred its decision on Grayscale’s XRP (XRP) tracking ETF and Bitwise’s Solana (SOL) tracking fund while it seeks public feedback and initiates “proceedings to allow for further assessment” of the proposals to confirm they meet regulatory requirements.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart mentioned on X that both delays were anticipated since the SEC “usually takes the full duration to respond to a 19b-4 submission.”
“Virtually all of these submissions have final deadlines in October,” and an early resolution would be “atypical,” Seyffart noted.
“Regardless of how Crypto-friendly this is, there’s no conspiracy involved,” he stated.
Seyffart indicated that delays for other spot crypto ETF requests are also anticipated, and the SEC is likely to postpone its decision on Litecoin (LTC) ETFs as well.
Nevertheless, he remarked, “Litecoin has a better chance compared to other assets of receiving approval first.”
“Several XRP ETPs have deadlines in the next few days. If we’re going to witness early approvals from the SEC on any of these assets, I wouldn’t expect them until late June or early July at the very earliest. It’s more probable to occur in early Q4,” Seyffart stated.
SEC managing influx of ETF applications
Numerous other crypto ETF requests are nearing SEC deadlines in June. The SEC is expected to make a decision on Grayscale’s Polkadot (DOT) tracking ETF by June 11 and 21Shares’ Polkadot ETF by June 24, according to an SEC filing.
Related: charges Unicoin crypto platform over alleged $100 million fraud
The SEC received a wave of altcoin submissions following Donald Trump’s election in November and the subsequent resignation of former Chair Gary Gensler.
Many in the industry viewed Gensler’s tenure at the SEC as a period characterized by a stringent regulatory approach toward crypto, with 100 crypto-related regulatory actions during his time from 2021 until his resignation on Jan. 20.
With Gensler’s exit, the SEC is seen as considerably more crypto-friendly, with several firms facing legal action from the regulator having had their cases dropped, including crypto exchange Gemini on Feb. 26 and crypto trading firm Cumberland DRW on March 4.
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