In an unexpected turn of events, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued additional comments on pending applicants’ form S-1s as part of the spot Bitcoin ETF applications. This came amid high hopes of an approval announcement anytime before the January 10, 2024 deadline.
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Delay Or Swift Action?
According to Perianne Boring, the President and founder of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the latest development is a delay signal from the agency. However, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart believes the issuance of additional comments is not necessarily a move to delay the ETF approval. The analyst said it was unusual that the form S-1s were sent to the SEC and the agency returned with additional comments the same day, in an indication of how quick the SEC is acting when it comes to the Bitcoin ETF applications.
“Really this just shows how quickly the SEC is turning these things around. If they wanted to delay — the issuers wouldn’t have gotten comments back tonight”
The SEC officials face a deadline of January 10, 2024, before which they would have to take a decision on the approval or rejection of the Ark 21Shares spot Bitcoin ETF filing. The Ark 21Shares filing was among the first few applications, after which the likes of Blackrock, Fidelity, Bitwise, Van Eck and Valkyrie followed.
What Next?
While the paperwork requirements are being taken care of by the prospective ETF issuers, the latest submission of the 19b-4s refiles came from as many as 9 issuers. Out of this, the Blackrock’s refiling for its iShares Bitcoin ETF filing was said to be missing as of 8 am Eastern Time on January 8, 2024. However, analysts state that the approval is imminent as there could be time to make amendments later too. Will the US SEC officials stick to the January 10 deadline for the approval of the first ever spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States.
Meanwhile, the Bitcoin Price (BTC) zoomed past the $47,000 mark on Monday, January 8, 2024, in what could be a sign of anticipation of the ETF approval among traders and investors.
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