Market a Sea of Red Following U.S. SEC Decision to Postpone VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF Ruling
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed a decision on a proposed CBOE BZX Exchange Bitcoin ETF powered by investment firm VanEck and financial services company SolidX, throwing the crypto market into a sea of red.
The proposed rule change from CBOE would, if approved, constitute a critical point on a path to listing a Bitcoin ETF, in conjunction with money management firm VanEck and crypto startup SolidX. The companies submitted their proposal back in June with more than 1300 comments on the proposed rule change. As per the SEC filing, the price of each share of the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust is set to $200,000 with the high price reflecting the fund’s intention to focus on institutional, rather than retail investors.
However, in an order published on Tuesday, August 7, the Commission said that it was giving itself more time to deliberate on whether to approve what would be the first exchange-traded product of its kind in the U.S.
The decision to delay the application is unsurprising though, as the SEC frequently delays rulings on ETFs from emerging markets. As for the new decision date, the SEC wrote:
“Accordingly, the Commission … designates September 30, 2018, as the date by which the Commission shall either approve or disapprove, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove, the proposed rule change.”
The SEC also notes that they have the ability to extend the decision under federal law, saying:
“Section 19(b)(2) of the Act provides that within 45 days of the publication of notice of the filing of a proposed rule change, or within such longer period up to 90 days as the Commission may designate if it finds such longer period to be appropriate…the Commission shall either approve the proposed rule change, disapprove the proposed rule change, or institute proceedings to determine whether the proposed rule change should be disapproved. The Commission is extending this 45-day time period.”
Immediately after the SEC’s announcement, the cryptocurrency markets went from a daily high of $257.4 billion to a daily low of $229.1 billion.
In a matter of minutes Bitcoin slipped from Tuesday highs of over $7,100 down below $6,800, a mark that many analysts had pegged as a critical support level for BTC’s short-term prospects. It went further down ultimately slipping below the $6,500 mark on early hours Wednesday morning.
Other cryptocurrencies followed the trend, with XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, IOTA, TRON, Ethereum Classic and NEO all down from to 10 to 15 percent over a 24-hour period. Moreover, in the course of these developments XRP, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, fell to a new 2018 low on Wednesday.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows the token dropped to $0.3455 – seven cents from the previous yearly low of $0.42 in July. Current price stands at its lowest level since December 12, 2017, days before XRP shot up to all-time-highs over $3 amid a bull run on the crypto market.
At press time (08:00 UTC) Bitcoin was changing hands at $6500.
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