SEC Can Approve "Several" Applications for Bitcoin Spot ETFs as Early as Today, and Ethereum Spot ETFs Could Go Public This Year

The situation with the SEC's delayed decision on Bitcoin spot ETF applications has reached a boiling point.

Yesterday, January 4, several prominent financial institutions – such as VanEck, ARK Invest, Valkyrie, Fidelity and others – requested the SEC to clarify the statuses of their applications to register their Bitcoin spot ETFs using Form 8-A12B, which is a registration form for listing securities on a U.S. national exchange.

The Form 8-A is only a securities registration form that must be completed before an ETF can be launched, and it does not yet mean that the ETF has been de-facto approved. The ETF still requires a 19b-4 approval form and valid, processed and complete S-1 form to go ahead to become publicly traded.