“We think we are likely to see one in the next year or two, but we don’t have a set date of when they will say yes,” Todd Rosenbluth said.
According to an analyst at CFRA Research, VanEck, Fidelity Investments and Valkyrie Digital Assets may not see their Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, approved by US regulators for another two years.
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In an interview on CNBC’s Edge ETF show on Monday, Todd Rosenbluth, head of mutual fund and ETF research at CFRA, told host Bob Pisani that he believed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or The SEC would extend the deadline to consider the Bitcoin ETF first presented by investment management company VanEck in January. The SEC officially acknowledged that it received the request for the Bitcoin ETF on March 15, giving the regulatory body until April 29 to make a decision to extend the deadline.
“We have a lot of companies that have gone through the filing process or have previously, but are waiting for more clarity,” Rosenbluth said. “We think the SEC is less likely to try to pick a winner, as to who comes first, and I think it is more likely that if they approve one ETF, they will approve multiple Bitcoin-related ETFs.”
And he added:
“There are a number of companies that have applied. We think we are likely to see one in the next year or two, but we don’t have a set date of when they will say yes.”
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VanEck and Valkyrie filed with the SEC to launch a Bitcoin ETF in January, and Fidelity did the same in March. The regulator has not offered any indication as to what it will decide, but given its apparent reluctance to pre-approve a cryptocurrency ETF, many experts don’t expect a decision anytime soon.
The U.S. may not have approved a crypto ETF yet, but Canadian companies have led the way in North America. Toronto-based Purpose Investments launched a Bitcoin ETF in February, and Ninepoint Partners is rumored to be planning to switch its trust offering from Bitcoin to an exchange-traded fund. Both mutual fund manager 3iQ and Evolve Funds Group announced that they had submitted a prospectus to Canadian regulators to get the go-ahead and start listing cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds.
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Following Fidelity’s filing last month, Rosenbluth said it was “a question of when, not whether, the SEC will approve a Bitcoin ETF.” He appeared to be hinting on Monday that the approval of even one on US soil could potentially open the floodgates for firms looking to launch exchange-traded cryptocurrency funds.
