- Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) once again submit the VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF proposal after the US Government Shutdown ended
- The end of the US Government Shutdown confirms the speculations
- The long hand of the government affects crypto progress
On February 1, 2019, Gabor Gurbacs, the director of digital assets strategy at VanEck, announced that the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) has re-submitted the proposed VanEck/SolidX Bitcoin ETF to SEC – conveniently right after the US government shutdown ended.
As reported by BlockchainReporter on January 23, 2019, Cboe withdrew their proposed rule change that upon approval, would have allowed them to list and trade shares issued by VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF.
No reason was given for the withdrawal, but a handful of digital experts and law securities had speculated that the US government shutdown was a major contributing factor for Cboe’s withdrawal.
Did the US government shutdown Affect SEC Proceedings?
Although Eduardo Aleman – the deputy secretary of SEC, did not state why Cboe withdrew their proposal, Financial and Law experts speculated that the US government shutdown might have resulted in an inadequate number of SEC officials capable of conducting a comprehensive review of the proposal. Therefore, due to the fear of being rejected, Cboe pulled out their proposal.
Connecting the dots, Jan van Eck, the CEO of VanEck, confirmed that the record-breaking US government shutdown which went on for 35 days, prompted Cboe to withdraw their proposed ruling change. However, Jan Van Eck echoed that the withdrawal is only temporary and evidently it turns out he was true to his word.
The US government shutdown came to a temporary end on January 26th after the US President, Donald Trump, announced that he has strike a short-term deal to put the government fully operational for three weeks, i.e. till Feb 15, 2019.
Crypto Not a Lone Wolf After All
As much as cryptocurrencies boast of its decentralized features, in more than a few occasions we have seen the government still wrapping its long hand around this new wave financial technology. The above sequence of events proves that.
The Division of Corporation Finance at SEC resumed work on January 27, 2019. Initially, the SEC was supposed to make their ruling on February 27, but after Cboe withdrawing then submitting the proposal again, the commission is expected to decide in less than eight months (240 days) from now.