SEC Delays VanEck ETF Yet Again

In the Bitcoin industry’s Sisyphean struggle to secure a Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF), the boulder is rolling back down the hill.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) posted a notice today, May 20, 2019, that it is delaying its decision on the VanEck and SolidX Bitcoin ETF proposal. With this additional extension (the first coming on March 29, 2019), the agency will have until August 19, 2019 to either approve, reject or delay the decision yet again; if it is delayed a second time, the agency will have to reach a final decision by October 19, 2019.This news is the first of many instances in which the SEC has delayed or rejected rule changes that would allow for the world’s first bitcoin ETF to come to market. VanEck and SolidX, in collaboration with the Cboe BZX exchange, withdrew one of their many applications for a bitcoin ETF in January 2019 amid a federal government shutdown. The VanEck ETF has been considered one of the industries best shots at receiving approval for such a product, as trailblazers like the Winklevoss’ own have failed, alongside numerous other.“Institution of proceedings does not indicate that the Commission has reached any conclusions with respect to any of the issues involved,” the notice reads. “Rather, as described below, the Commission seeks and encourages interested persons to provide comments on the proposed rule change.”As with past decisions, the SEC is opening the floor to th...