Because the January 10 deadline for the approval of a number of spot Bitcoin ETF looms, the US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) has made a notable transfer by sending new feedback on updated S-1 filings simply hours after their submission. This swift response from the SEC has sparked a debate throughout the crypto group in regards to the potential implications for the approval timeline of Bitcoin ETFs.

Will The Bitcoin ETFs Be Delayed?

Perianne Boring, founder and CEO of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, expressed concern over the SEC’s actions, suggesting it could possibly be a sign for delay. She stated, “SPOT BITCOIN ETF UPDATE: The SEC just issued additional comments on pending applicant’s S-1s. This is a delay signal.”

Nonetheless, this view is just not universally held. James Seyffart, an ETF professional for Bloomberg, supplied a extra nuanced perspective. He remarked, it’s true that feedback got here again on the S-1 paperwork which have been filed on Monday morning with the charges that everybody needed to see.

Nonetheless, Seyffart expects to see extra amendments tomorrow due to this. “That said — I don’t think this is necessarily a delay signal. Really this just shows how quickly the SEC is turning these things around. Borderline unheard of to send over a document to the SEC in the morning and get comments back the same day (I think). If they wanted to delay — the issuers wouldn’t have gotten comments back tonight,” the professional said.

Fox Enterprise journalist Eleanor Terrett, after talking with a few of the concerned events, additionally reported a common sentiment of confidence. “Just spoke with a couple of people who received additional comments. They say they’re not worried and the SEC hasn’t conveyed a change of plans. My sense is that they’re fairly confident this is just part of the process to get everything in before January 10th,” Terrett mentioned.

Regardless of preliminary considerations, Perianne hopes for a optimistic end result, “After reading commentary from people like James Seyffart and Eleanor Terrett, I hope I am wrong in my interpretation. BUT I’m worried the SEC has more tools at its disposal to block spot bitcoin ETFs from coming to market. Chair Gensler doesn’t want to go down without a fight. I’m hoping for a successful launch this week.”

S-1s Do Not Want To Be Full

Including to the optimism, Scott Johnsson, a finance lawyer at Davis Polk, pointed out the bizarre pace of the SEC’s response. Furthermore, he reminded the group that S-1s don’t should be full when 19b-4s are authorized.

“Take futures ETFs in 2022. Hashdex didn’t even get initial comments until after its 19b-4 was approved. More than anything, these quick comments demonstrate SEC working to push everything forward for a quick approval and launch (vs what we saw with futures),” mentioned Johnsson.

Additional investigation additionally reveals that the feedback addressed minor particulars within the amended S-1 types moderately than important adjustments, suggesting that they need to not have an effect on the timeline for potential approval by the regulator. Outstanding issuers, together with BlackRock, Constancy, Bitwise, Ark and Grayscale had introduced their anticipated charges in filings earlier on Monday.

Monday’s feedback additionally point out that SEC officers proceed to interact in dialogues with the would-be ETF issuers. Whereas a delay appears doable, it seems moderately unlikely at this stage.

At press time, BTC was buying and selling at 46,835. The value has damaged out of the uptrend channel established in mid-October and is at the moment performing a retest. If that is topped with success, the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement degree at $48,700 could be the following goal.