Original author: Nancy, PANews
Shortly after Gary Gensler left office, the US SEC showed a more friendly attitude towards cryptocurrencies under the leadership of the new administration, and its new crypto working group even stated that it would clarify the approval rules for crypto ETFs. In recent times, more and more institutions have joined the ranks of crypto ETF applications, among which the spot ETF application progress of SOL, LTC and XRP has ushered in significant new progress.
According to PANews statistics, SOL and LTC have the most spot ETF applicants, with 5 issuers participating in each. From the perspective of progress, major institutions have submitted 19 b-4 documents for SOL, LTC, and XRP, but only Grayscales Solana ETF and Litecoin Trust, Canarys Litecoin ETF applications have been accepted by the SEC first. According to the rules, after accepting the 19 b-4 document, the SEC will usually publish it in the Federal Register and open a 21-day public comment period. After that, the SEC will conduct multiple rounds of extensions and reviews, and finally make a decision to approve or reject. This time period is up to 240 days, and the key nodes of the reply date are 45 days, 45 days, 90 days, and 60 days respectively.
SOL Spot ETF: 5 institutions participated in the application, Grayscale has been accepted by the SEC
Currently, five issuers have submitted spot Solana (SOL) ETF applications, namely Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, 21 Shares and Canary Capital. Unlike several other institutions, Grayscale is converting the Solana Trust Fund into a spot ETF.
Although these institutions submitted SOL spot ETF application documents last year, many were rejected by the US SEC. On January 29 this year, Cboe BZX Exchange resubmitted the 19 b-4 document for the spot Solana ETF on behalf of Bitwise and VanEck and other institutions. From the approval timeline, the next approval time of the SEC is March 30 and April 3 respectively.
It is worth mentioning that the SEC seems to have relaxed a bit. The latest news shows that the agency has accepted the 19 b-4 application of Grayscale Solana ETF.
In response, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said this could be a positive sign for anyone (or any exchange) facing an SEC lawsuit in which the SEC blatantly claims that Solana is a security...
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, also said that this is news worth paying attention to. This is the first time that the SEC has recognized an ETF application that tracks tokens that were previously called securities. Just six weeks ago, the SEC, led by Gensler, asked CBOE to withdraw its Solana 19 b-4 application. So we are now entering new territory, although it is only a small step, but it seems to be a direct result of leadership changes.
XRP spot ETF: Received applications from 5 institutions, all of which have submitted 19 b-4 documents
So far, Grayscale, Bitwise, Canary Capital, 21 Shares and Wisdomtree have applied for XRP spot ETFs. Among them, Grayscale applied to convert the XRP Trust into a spot cryptocurrency ETF by submitting a 19 b-4 document on January 30 this year, and Cboe BZX Exchange submitted a 19 b-4 document on behalf of Bitwise, 21 Shares and Canary Capital on February 6 to apply for listing and trading XRP spot ETFs. Once confirmed by the SEC, the application will be published in the Federal Register to initiate the regulatory approval process.
LTC spot ETF: Grayscale and Canary applications are both accepted by the SEC
Currently, only Grayscale and Canary Capital have submitted applications for LTC spot ETFs. According to the documents, Canary Capital and Grayscale submitted 19 b-4 applications for LTC ETFs on January 16 and January 24 of this year, respectively. At the same time, the SEC has accepted the Litecoin ETF applications of both institutions and has now entered a 21-day public comment window, but the SEC may decide to approve, reject or start the process.
Eric Balchunas recently stated that he still believes Litecoin will become the next SEC-approved crypto spot ETF.
In addition to SOL, XRP and LTC, multiple crypto assets have also joined the spot ETF approval battle. For example, in January this year, Rex applied for Trump ETF, BONK ETF and other applications; in February, New York Stock Exchange Arca submitted a 19 b-4 form for the spot Dogecoin ETF to the SEC; 21 Shares submitted an S-1 registration application for the spot Polkadot ETF to the SEC.
