CBOE Withdraws Its VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF Application Temporarily

24. Jan 2019 Posted by Akolkar B on News

It is a big disappointing news for the entire Bitcoin and crypto community as the possibility of CBOE Bitcoin ETF arrival by the end of February is now nullified. On Wednesday, January 23, CBOE announced the pullback of its VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF application that was awaiting an SEC approval.

CBOE has filed the Bitcoin ETF application with the SEC in July 2018. However, the final deadline for the SEC to conclude on its status was by end of February 2019. On Wednesday, the SEC published an official notice showing the withdrawal by the CBOE BZX exchange.

Although VanEck has not explicitly stated the reason of withdrawal in the SEC document, the ongoing U.S. government shutdown is speculated as the major reason behind the withdrawal. On its official website, the SEC has announced that it is on hiatus until the U.S. government resume routine work.

While speaking to CNBC, VanEck’s founder and CEO, Jan Van Eck, told that they are ready to provide all answers to the concerns raised by the SEC previously.

He added: “We were engaged in discussions with the SEC about the bitcoin-related issues, custody, market manipulation, prices, and that had to stop. “We were trying to do that but we obviously can’t have meetings when they’re shut down. Instead of trying to slip through or something, we just had the application pulled.”

However, this is just a temporary withdrawal and VanEck is likely to re-file the proposal again. We will refile when the SEC gets going,” said the VanEck founder.

On the other hand, VanEck’s Director of Digital Assets Strategy - Gabor Gurbacs said that they are actively working with the regulators on creating a robust framework for the Bitcoin ETF. Gurbacs tweeted: “The Bitcoin ETF filing has been temporarily withdrawn. We are actively working with regulators and major market participants to build appropriate market structure frameworks for a Bitcoin ETF and digital assets in general. Will keep you updated.”

Over the last year, the SEC has rejected multiple Bitcoin ETF proposals filed by crypto companies. A few months back, the Bitcoin ETF application by Gemini exchange founders - The Winklevoss twins - was also rejected by the SEC. However, in a recent Reddit AMA session, the Winklevoss brothers said that they would double-down their efforts to bring Bitcoin ETF to the market.

In November 2018, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said that the crypto market is not prepared for ETF-like products. Clayton’s comments came citing the several cases of market manipulations and crypto exchange hacks that surfaced last year. Clayton said that he won’t approve any crypto ETF until the exchanges deal with this problem.

In spite of the recent pullback, the market and Bitcoin has not reacted to the news. Bitcoin (BTC) continues to trade with minor movement of less than 1% at the price of $3602, at the press time.