The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States has shown its first moderate approach to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF application. However, according to analysts, even if a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund is approved, the official launch process will take at least one month after this legal step taken by the institution.
What Will Happen After SEC Approval?
The expected delay in the product launch after a possible SEC approval is due to the two-stage process of launching an ETF service. For a company to launch a Bitcoin ETF service, it needs to obtain SEC approval from the Trading and Markets division under section 19b-4 and from the Corporate Finance division in the S-1 filing or amendment.
The initial focus of the Corporate Finance division includes fund operations details and risk disclosures. So far, nine out of twelve Bitcoin ETF applications have submitted revised guidebooks showing their communication with the Corporate Finance.
Market analysts predict that if the SEC officials accept the 19b-4 approvals before approving the prospectus documents, the launch of the Bitcoin ETF may be delayed. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart shared with his followers that even if the 19b-4 report is approved, an S-1 approval can take weeks or months between the process and the launch.
90% Possibility of Approval in ETF Applications
There will be an eight-day period starting on November 8th and ending on November 17th for the SEC officials to approve the first spot Bitcoin ETF application. Although the chances of approval are 90% according to market experts, they believe that this approval will not happen until the beginning of next year.
Previously, the SEC extended the deadline for the latest comments on spot Bitcoin ETF products until November 8th. The process of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US was ignited by the application of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. While Fidelity and several other asset managers also applied for spot Bitcoin ETF products, most of these applications were rejected or withdrawn by the institutions.
With this process, many market analysts have predicted a possible approval for the spot ETF product in the 2023-2024 cycle and have given this possibility a chance of up to 90%.
