The Securities and Exchange Commission delayed a decision for the second time on whether to approve the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the U.S.
In a filing Wednesday, the SEC said it hasn't yet reached a decision on a proposal from VanEck Associates to create a bitcoin ETF. The SEC filing came a day before the agency was due to rule on the proposal, which was filed in March. The SEC first delayed the decision in April. It has up to 240 days to rule on the proposal.
To date, the SEC has not approved a bitcoin ETF, though several proposals have been filed.
If approved, the VanEck Bitcoin Trust would list shares on Cboe's BZX Exchange.
"We believe that (an ETF) is a better wrapper than other options where investors are obtaining exposure to bitcoin," Laura Morrison, senior vice president, global head of listings at Cboe, told Pensions & Investments in April, not long after Cboe made a filing to the SEC in support of the VanEck proposal. "The ETF in general is typically less expensive, the management fees are typically lower than say what you might be willing to spend on other options that are available in the U.S. today, such as trading in your Coinbase account or an OTC product, (for which) they charge a hefty management fee."
In its filing Wednesday, the SEC also sought additional feedback on the VanEck proposal and opened up a 21-day comment period upon publication in the Federal Register.
Canadian regulators earlier this year approved the first bitcoin ETF in North America, the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which has C$900 million ($740 million) in assets under management.
