If the Securities and Exchange Commission had approved a Bitwise Bitcoin ETF today — April's Fool Day — would anyone have believed it?
Today marked the end of the 45-day public comment period for the ETF and the SEC punted, extending the deadline to May 16.
"The commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change," according to a commission statement released on March 29. By May 16, it expects to "approve or disapprove or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove the proposed rule change," according to the statement.
The SEC also delayed a decision on a proposed rule change from the Cboe BZX Exchange to list and trade shares of the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Shares, which was previously withdrawn, then resubmitted. Its public comment period would have ended April 6 and has now been extended to May 21.
To date, the SEC has not approved any cryptocurrency ETF for trading. It has rejected some filings, including one by the Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, while others have been withdrawn by sponsors who had reason to be pessimistic about approval.
