“From 270 Days to 75”: How the SEC’s Quiet Rule Change Rewires Crypto ETF Timelines

A regulatory shift by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has quietly redrawn the path to market for crypto exchange-traded ￰1￱ September 17, the Commission adopted new standards that allow certain crypto ETFs to be listed more quickly, bypassing months of case-by-case approval. Previously, each spot ETF required a full review through what is known as a Rule 19b-4 filing. Now, exchanges can use generic listing standards if the products meet predefined ￰2￱ change reduces waiting periods from nine months to just under three months in some ￰3￱ the SEC’s ETF Rule Actually Changes Within days, ETF issuers began preparing amendments and launching new products based on this ￰4￱ them are proposed funds tied to Solana , XRP, and other digital assets beyond Bitcoin and ￰5￱ first to benefit was the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC), which includes a range of crypto ￰6￱ listing was approved alongside the rule change and serves as the initial example of how the faster process works in ￰7￱ update is procedural in ￰8￱ does not loosen standards for investor protection or product quality.

Instead, it streamlines the review of products that already fit within established regulatory ￰9￱ the shift creates new ￰10￱ less time between filing and launch, issuers must ensure that operational systems are ￰11￱ includes market making, custody arrangements, and liquidity ￰12￱ of the new crypto ETFs will be based on assets that are less liquid than ￰13￱ Solana and XRP are widely traded, they do not benefit from the same depth in futures markets or institutional custody ￰14￱ infrastructure gap is especially relevant for funds that plan to offer staking or other yield-generating ￰15￱ designs add complexity and require additional oversight from regulators and service providers.

Solana, XRP Filings Show How Fast the ETF Race Is Moving As of last week, eight companies submitted draft filings for Solana ￰16￱ include VanEck, CoinShares, Hashdex , and ￰17￱ filings propose structures that allow staking rewards to be returned to shareholders. VanEck’s decision to file for a Solana ETF may prove to be a "long shot" worth taking, analysts say ￰0￱ — Bloomberg (@business) June 28, 2024 Final amendments for the XRP ETFs are expected ￰18￱ dates include October 12 for Bitwise, October 18 for Grayscale, and October 19 for ￰19￱ more are expected to ￰20￱ SEC has not said whether it will allow every altcoin to follow this ￰21￱ depends on factors such as market size, surveillance agreements, and previous listing ￰22￱ effect, the barrier to entry has ￰23￱ of waiting on regulators, firms now race to align their internal systems and third-party ￰24￱ includes authorized participants, price-feed vendors, and liquidity ￰25￱ Listings Shifts Pressure from Policy to Operations The change has not produced a surge in approvals yet—it has shifted ￰26￱ than asking whether an ETF will be allowed, the focus is now on how soon it can be launched and how well it will function once ￰27￱ investors, the result may be more choices and faster access to digital ￰28￱ those outcomes depend less on policy than on ￰29￱ the current environment, speed does not ensure ￰30￱ only moves the pressure to a different part of the process.