On Sept. 17, the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s BZX Equity Exchange withdrew its VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal a month ahead of the review deadline. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the regulator on the matter — had until Oct. 18 to greenlight or reject the financial product.
As a result, the race for the first Bitcoin (BTC) ETF seems to be postponed once again. While the SEC is still reviewing two other proposals of this kind, the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF was generally perceived as the strongest contestant to get regulatory permission and debut this investment vehicle in the U.S. Chances are the industry will not see a crypto-based ETF until 2020 at the earliest.