Will SEC Take a Decision on Bitcoin ETF Soon?

By Swati Kishore

The regulatory body Securities and Exchange Commission has put on hold all administrative proceedings owing to the ongoing US government shutdown. A legal expert has however claimed that as per the laws, the SEC cannot postpone the decision on the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF past the deadline.

On January 16, 2019, the SEC announced that it would be freezing administrative proceedings because of ‘experiencing a lapse in appropriations’. According to the released order, any proceeding which requires a hearing before the SEC is currently on hold.

Jake Chervinsky, a legal expert, has however claimed that the SEC has been shut even before the order. Chervinskly claims that administrative proceedings are still in process.

Interested parties, whose proceedings are an exception as stated in the order, have the option to file a motion against the stay.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is required to decide on the state of the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF by February 27, 2019.

The VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF is backed by the CBOE, which is one of the world’s largest exchange holding companies.

According to Chervinsky, despite the new order, the Securities Exchange and Commission is not entitled to postpone its decision further on the ETF as it is imposed by the statute.

It is interesting to note that the SEC has been delaying its decision on the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF since a while now. The last delay was announced in December 2018.

The shutdown of SEC had the crypto community thinking that the Bitcoin ETF might get a default approval if the deadline is missed by the regulatory body. Legal expert Chervinskly said while this is true in theory, however, it will never happen in reality.

While it is true that if the SEC misses a deadline and does not take any decision on a proposed rule, then it is automatically approved, however, in reality, this does not ever happen because the regulatory body has enough staff to put out a notice saying ‘denied’ with an explanation to be given later.

Chervinsky is not just a legal expert, he also comments frequently on crypto issues. The lawyer had previously stated that chances of the approval of Bitcoin ETF by the SEC have decreased by 10%.