CBOE Resubmits ETF Proposal

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has resubmitted its application in partnership with financial services firm SolidX and investment company VanEck Associates to the US SEC (United States Securities and Exchange Commission). The application is for a rule change that will then allow CBOE to list a BTC (Bitcoin) ETF (exchange traded fund) backed by its partners on its BZX Exchange.

Earlier Proposal Withdrawn

The CBOE’s earlier proposal had been withdrawn last month because of the shutdown in the American government. At the time of withdrawing the application, the Chief Executive Officer of VanEck Associates Jan Van Eck said that the three companies had been in discussions with the SEC. However, these talks came to a stop when the government shutdown started. Van Eck said that in order to avoid a possible rejection because of the closure, they withdrew their application.

Decision Making Delayed

Before the withdrawal of their application, the companies were expecting a final decision to be taken by February 27. The SEC had already extended its assessment period multiple times.

The first time CBOE filed the application was on June 6 in 2018. In August, the regulator postponed its decision on whether it would allow the exchange to list the BTC ETF until September 30.

The SEC then further pushed back taking a decision on this matter by requesting for comments from the public with regard to this application. The agency claimed that it could not reach any conclusions with regard to any of the issues.

In December, the decision was once more delayed, after which the government shutdown postponed all decisions indefinitely.

During this time, the application for a rule change had not even been released in the Federal Register. This means that countdown for the SEC to take a decision had not begun. Once the application is published, then the agency needs to take a decision within 240 days.

The Race for the BTC ETF Isn’t Over

The assumption that the slump in the crypto market has taken the sheen away from BTC ETFs is wrong. Multiple industry majors have applied to the SEC to have their versions of the Bitcoin-based exchange traded fund.

CBOE’s resubmission of its proposal comes just days after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) tied up with Bitwise to launch its own BTC ETF. However, besides the announcement, no further details about the status of NYSE’s application is known at this time.