The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held talks with prospective investors. Solana brush
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According to people familiar with the situation, Cboe BZX raised concerns about Solana’s potential security status with ETF issuers before deleting the relevant 19b-4 filing.
After discussion, the SEC and Cboe agreed not to file Form 19b-4 with the Federal Register, which would have started the approval process. Doing so would have pressured the SEC to make a decision regarding the potential Solana ETF.
As we noticed over the weekend, the 19b-4 filings filed by the exchange on behalf of issuers are no longer listed on the Cboe website. They are also no longer in the Federal Register.
For an ETF to be approved, Form 19b-4 must be approved and an S-1 registration statement must be filed. However, Form S-1 does not set a specific deadline for filing with the SEC.
The S-1 registration statement for VanEck’s Solana ETF still appears on EDGAR, the SEC’s filing system. The registration statement for 21Shares’ S-1 registration statement no longer appears in search results, but the direct link still works.
Case Study for Solana ETF
The SEC’s stance came as no surprise to issuers, according to the sources, who said the agency had previously called Solana a security in several court filings. Nor was the idea that such a filing could be frustrated.
Sources said they expect new filings or amendments to 19b-4 in the coming days, which would further strengthen Solana’s argument that it is not a security.
“We cannot comment on regulatory proceedings at this time. We are committed to expanding investor access to cryptocurrencies in the U.S. market and globally,” said Audrey Beloff, 21Shares’ head of communications.
While both Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have cleared the necessary regulatory hurdles and are now trading, most market watchers expect the SEC to be more hesitant to approve the new Solana fund. Nate Geraci, president of investment advisory firm The ETF Store, said on August 17 that the Solana ETF is unlikely to be approved under the current Biden administration.
This was agreed by James Seyffart, an ETF expert at Bloomberg Intelligence. I told X “If there is a new administration in the White House and the SEC, the fund could be launched sometime in 2025, and even then, there are no guarantees.”
The SEC argued that Solana is a security, while VanEck argued that the Solana cryptocurrency is a commodity and functions identically to bitcoin and ether.
VanEck, Cboe and the SEC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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