BTC Price Pushes Towards $36K Ahead of 2023's Last Approval Period for Bitcoin ETFs

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has one last short window, an eight-day period starting Thursday, if it wants to approve all 12 spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF applications this year, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday.

Bitcoin traded slightly higher on Wednesday afternoon, staying well past the $35,000 mark ahead of the start of the period.

The analysts, Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart, who expect the SEC to ultimately allow all 12 applications to launch their products, wrote that comment periods for seven applicants end on Wednesday, which means that the SEC could issue approval orders starting Thursday, Nov. 9 through Nov. 17.

This is the first approval window after Grayscale’s court victory on Oct. 23 to convert its roughly $17 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot ETF.

Three applicants, Hashdex, Franklin and Global X, may have their own comment periods, the note said, so if the SEC is willing to disregard those applications for now, they could issue approvals for the first nine filings, which include BlackRock, Grayscale, 21Shares & Ark, Bitwise, VanEck, Wisdomtree, Invesco & Galaxy, Fidelity and Valkyrie.

The analysts believe that even if the SEC delays its decision another time during this period, there’s still a 90% chance that at least one spot bitcoin ETF gets approved by Jan. 10.