The US Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) on Monday delayed its choice on the proposed Reality Social Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), extending the evaluate deadline to Sept. 18 from Aug. 4.
The fund, backed by the Trump Media and Know-how group, is looking for approval to record the Reality Social Bitcoin ETF on the NYSE Arca alternate below the SEC’s commodity-based belief share framework.
The company, which might take as much as 270 days to approve or reject ETF purposes, stated it prolonged the review interval to permit extra time to judge the proposal and any points raised.
The SEC continues to train warning
The Trump-backed Bitcoin ETF wasn’t the one fund dealing with delays from the SEC right this moment. The company additionally postponed selections on Grayscale’s Solana Trust, prolonged to Oct. 10, and Canary Capital’s proposed Litecoin ETF.
Hester Peirce, a commissioner on the SEC — dubbed “Crypto Mother” for her pro-crypto stance — lately urged trade stakeholders to count on slower approvals. “Folks need to be affected person… We’ve got some ongoing litigation we’re attempting to work via. We’ve got a lot of different issues,” she stated in an interview with Bloomberg in Might.
Nonetheless, right this moment’s delays are swift by historic requirements. It took over a decade from the primary spot Bitcoin ETF application in 2013 for the SEC to lastly approve it in January 2024.
Questions over Trump’s ETF
If permitted, the Reality Social Bitcoin ETF could be the primary crypto ETF linked to a sitting US president’s enterprise pursuits. Whereas the ETF itself hasn’t drawn formal objections from the SEC, different Trump-linked crypto offers have raised questions on ethics, affect, and regulatory impartiality, particularly amongst Democrats.
In Might, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley despatched a proper letter to the Workplace of Authorities Ethics, calling a Trump-linked crypto deal involving World Liberty Monetary, Binance and a United Arab Emirates (UAE) agency “a staggering battle of curiosity.”
They wrote,
This deal raises the troubling prospect that the Trump and Witkoff households might broaden the usage of their stablecoin as an avenue to revenue from international corruption.”
There may be additionally concern that Trump might personally profit from regulatory selections that influence crypto markets or corporations linked to his enterprise ventures, particularly if the SEC approves a monetary product that legitimizes or will increase demand for belongings linked to his model.
Trump has actively engaged with the crypto trade since he took workplace. On July 18, he signed the GENIUS Act, the primary main US legislation to offer a transparent regulatory framework for stablecoins.
On June 25, the Trump-appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Admistration (FHFA), William J. Pulte, issued a directive ordering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to arrange proposals to deal with unconverted cryptocurrency holdings as probably qualifying belongings in single-family mortgage underwriting, with out requiring conversion to US {dollars}.
Magazine: US risks being ‘front run’ on Bitcoin reserve by other nations — Samson Mow
