The US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) on Monday delayed its choice on the proposed Reality Social Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), extending the evaluation deadline to Sept. 18 from Aug. 4.
The fund, backed by the Trump Media and Expertise group, is looking for approval to checklist the Reality Social Bitcoin ETF on the NYSE Arca alternate below the SEC’s commodity-based belief share framework.
The company, which may take as much as 270 days to approve or reject ETF purposes, mentioned it prolonged the review interval to permit extra time to guage the proposal and any points raised.
The SEC continues to train warning
The Trump-backed Bitcoin ETF wasn’t the one fund going through delays from the SEC in the present day. 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 — just lately urged business stakeholders to count on slower approvals. “Folks should be affected person… We’ve some ongoing litigation we’re attempting to work via. We’ve numerous different issues,” she mentioned in an interview with Bloomberg in Could.
Nonetheless, in the present day’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 accredited, the Reality Social Bitcoin ETF can 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 Could, 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 may develop the usage of their stablecoin as an avenue to revenue from international corruption.”
There may be additionally concern that Trump may personally profit from regulatory selections that impression crypto markets or companies related 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 business since he took workplace. On July 18, he signed the GENIUS Act, the primary main US regulation to supply 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 doubtlessly 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
