The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed out the decision date for the planned Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund to January 7, 2022.
The SEC stated in a statement that it “finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change and the issues raised in the comment letters that have been submitted.”
The Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund has already experienced delays in the SEC’s clearance process, the most recent of which occurred in June of this year.
Valkyrie Funds LLC, a financial services business, is at the centre of the United States’ recent move to Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), having received SEC clearance for its Bitcoin futures ETF—the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF—shortly after the ProShares and VanEck futures ETFs. The Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund, on the other hand, is a Bitcoin spot ETF, which means it must go through a separate licensing process and face a new regulatory obstacle.
The Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund
The Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund is the firm’s Bitcoin spot ETF, which means consumers may buy shares in the fund that are backed by the underlying asset—in this case, Bitcoin. This is in stark contrast to futures ETFs such as the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which provides investors shares in a bundle of contracts to acquire Bitcoin in the future.
As a result of the differences, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund will have a different path to approval than its futures equivalent. When it comes to futures ETFs, the SEC uses a “negative consent” paradigm, which implies that a company’s futures ETF is approved if the SEC does not object to it within the required time frame. Spot ETFs, on the other hand, require the SEC’s affirmative approval.
