Bloomberg Analyst: Crypto ETF Approval May Be Delayed Until New SEC Chairman Takes Office

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday delayed its decision on several spot cryptocurrency ETF applications, including XRP, Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Litecoin (LTC). Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said the SEC is unlikely to approve or reject the applications until Trump's nominee for SEC chairman, Paul Atkins, is confirmed by Congress. Seyffart noted that although Trump has nominated Atkins to take over as SEC chairman, no confirmation hearing has been scheduled yet. Additionally, spot bitcoin and ethereum ETFs have taken years to be approved, and the SEC has previously cited the maturity of the futures markets for the underlying assets as an important approval criterion, which none of the currently pending ETF applications meet. Nonetheless, analysts believe that the probability of some of the cottage-coin ETFs being approved before the end of this year is still upwards of 65%. However, the final outcome still depends on the confirmation of the new chairman and his policy direction.