According to the latest announcement, the SEC decided to delay two proposals for Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF Spot and Grayscale’s Ethereum ETF Futures.
Hashdex filed to convert its Bitcoin futures ETF into a spot Bitcoin ETF in September. Meanwhile, GRayscale (a subsidiary of CoinDesk Digital Cryptocurrency Group) also applied to open Ethereum ETF Futures in the same month. Deadline for the SEC to make decisions by Nov 17 but both filings have been delayed for more scrutiny.
Notably, there is another Bitcoin spot ETF filing from Franklin Templeton that is also due for a decision on Nov 17, but the SEC has not made any announcement as of now. However, it is highly likely the announcement will be made later this week.
The SEC delaying Grayscale’s Ethereum futures ETF is also quite puzzling, as this agency approved a series of ETH futures ETFs last month. The reason may be due to the ongoing legal dispute between the SEC and Grayscale, which won the lawsuit against the SEC in August. Grayscale then also applied to convert two Bitcoin and Ethereum funds into ETF spot.
ETF has been the driving force behind the market bullish since late October; however, the SEC has not approved any Bitcoin spot ETF, arguing that the crypto market is still rife with manipulation and fraud, threatening investors.
Bitcoin didn’t react negatively to the news, even surged to $37,980, the highest level since May 2022. It is trading at $37,486 on CoinMarketCap.
