SEC Postpones VanEck Bitcoin ETF, Yet Again. Should We Expect an Approval in 2019?

If listed on a regulated U.S. exchange, an ETF could pave the way for large institutional investors, and hence push bitcoin - and cryptocurrencies in general - toward a broader recognition by the Wall Street.

That's what the investment firm VanEck and a blockchain development company SolidX have been trying to achieve for almost a year now - listing a bitcoin ETF on the Chicago Board of Exchange's BZX Equities Exchange, the second-largest equities market operator in the U.S. Both VanEck and SolidX had tried to register their ETF separately beforehand - in August 2017 and in July 2016 respectively - but the SEC shut down their attempts.

Delay streak: history of VanEck/SolidX's ETF filings with the SEC. VanEck/SolidX's ETF originally filed a bid to the SEC on June 6, 2018 by CBOE. On Aug. 7, the agency postponed the case until Sept. 30.

In October, newly appointed SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman, who stepped into office a month earlier, met with representatives from VanEck, SolidX and CBOE to discuss the prospect of having a bitcoin-based ETF on the market, according to the agency's documents.

The SEC - being the agency that gets to decide if the industry is ready for a bitcoin ETF - has been rejecting and postponing crypto ETFs since 2017, when it first turned down the fund proposed by the Winklevoss brothers, after taking as many as four years.

Thus, securities lawyer Jake Chervinsky, who has been actively covering bitcoin ETF proposals on his Twitter, argued that there was a 0.1% chance that the VanEck/SolidX ETF would get approved on May 20.

"I'd be shocked if the SEC approved the first ever bitcoin ETF after six years of denials without taking all the time allowed by law," Chervinsky wrote.

Notably, the winds turned in July 2018, when the SEC's regular rejection of the Winklevoss brothers' application for a bitcoin ETF came with a silver lining.

Thus, the new deadline for a VanEck/SolidX ETF decision is August 19 - however, as Chervinsky notes, the SEC "Can & likely will delay one more time for a final deadline of October 18.".

Recent documents released by the SEC show that the watchdog is currently reviewing another ETF proposal that includes both bitcoin and ether.