On May 13, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission postponed its decision on several ETF applications relating to encrypted currency, including those submitted by Grayscale and BlackRock.
These delays extended the Agency ' s review schedule and were consistent with the expectation that it would not approve it before the last quarter of 2025.
The proposed Solana (SOL) and LTC spot ETF were postponed. The new filing deadlines for both are 11 August and 10 October.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has also deferred action on a claim for in-kind redemption for the real bitcoin (BTC) ETF approved by Belet. Bélédé ' s request had no updated deadline and was centred on the technical mechanism rather than on preliminary approval.
In addition, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated an official review schedule for 21 Shares field dog currency (DOGE) ETF 19b-4 applications. This document begins the countdown of the final decision according to the statutory timetable of the Agency.
A decision is expected later this year
The Agency ' s latest initiatives follow a broader staggered review model involving more than 70 encrypted ETF proposals, which are still at different stages of assessment. On 29 April, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission postponed its decision on ETF related to five other encrypted currencies.
The current delays are described as routine by Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas.
Seeffart states that the delay was “unexpected” and that most of the affected products faced a final deadline of not earlier than October.
Balchunas added that it was unlikely that the SEC would issue substantive approvals until it had recently confirmed that the Chairman, Paul Atkins, had completed an internal meeting with staff and a strategic meeting.
He said:
“They have been holding external meetings with people. Maybe come up with a strategy. After that, approval may be granted.”
Regulatory road map
The decision to encrypt ETF applications follows a multi-stage statutory procedure based on a proposed change of rules published in the Federal Gazette.
This body usually operates at intervals of 45 days, 90 days, 180 days and 240 days, thus providing a number of opportunities to postpone decisions until the final deadline is reached.
Recent actions by regulators are consistent with their historical practice of extending review to full statutory limitations before decisions are issued.
The absence of ETF in the group faced final deadlines by the end of the third quarter, which made it necessary for applicants and investors to wait for further clarification of the regulatory trajectory of encrypted-related investment instruments.