What the Government Shutdown Means for Pending Crypto ETFs

By James Rubin

Investors expecting U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approvals for a range of exchange-traded funds tracking various altcoins will have to wait longer, as the partial government shutdown lingers.

The regulator said that it would "not review and approve applications" for products or provide other "non-emergency support to registrants" during the closure, as outlined in a contingency operations plan highlighted on its website.

The SEC is currently reviewing more than 90 applications for ETFs based on the spot price of various altcoins, combinations of tokens, and different digital asset strategies, with Bloomberg fund analysts predicting that likely approvals, beginning with Solana-focused products, will be announced in early October.

"Crypto ETF approval season has officially arrived!" quipped Bloomberg Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a Tuesday post.

Issuers from the traditional finance and digital asset worlds have also proposed funds based on XRP, Cardano, Litecoin, and Dogecoin, among others.

Now, the October timeline seems increasingly unlikely as Senate Republicans and Democrats try to resolve a budget impasse.

In the interim, government agencies have had to scale back their everyday activities. The SEC noted that it would have limited personnel "until further notice."

Speaking on stage during the Token2049 event in Singapore, Vladimir Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, told a packed crowd that while there "may be some delays," there's "optimism that we'll get through it and there won't be too much business interruption."

"I think that it'll get sorted eventually," Tenev said. "The question is, how long will it take?"

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Nate Geraci, co-founder of trade group the ETF Institute, wrote that the "shutdown would definitely impact the launch of new spot crypto ETFs."

"ETF Cryptober might be on hold for a bit," he added.

The raft of filings over the past 18 months comes as issuers from both traditional finance and crypto look to address surging demand for digital asset-focused products, following the dramatic success of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds.

The 11 BTC funds now manage about $150 billion in assets (AUM), according to data analytics platform CoinGlass with BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, the fastest growing ETF in the industry's 32-year history, accounting for more than half the total. Ethereum funds' AUM now surpasses $22 billion.

Solana, the sixth-largest crypto with a market capitalization of more than $118 billion, was recently trading above $222, up more than 6% amid a wider upswing in crypto prices on Wednesday, as investors seemed largely untroubled by the budget impasse or looked to crypto as a safe-haven asset.

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