VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital requested on June 5 that the US Securities and Change Fee (SEC) reinstate the queue-based assessment system that awards exchange-traded product approvals within the order issuers filed.
In a joint letter to Chair Paul Atkins, the companies mentioned concurrent approvals strip early filers of the benefit that historically offsets increased authorized and compliance prices.
Within the letter, VanEck chief govt Jan van Eck, Canary’s Steve McClurg, and 21Shares president Duncan Moir requested the SEC to use the filing-date precept to pending merchandise, together with any future Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) submissions.
The letter additionally calls on the regulator to “nurture a aggressive monetary market” by restoring predictable timelines.
Stalled first-mover benefit
The letter argued that departures from the queue started in October 2021, when the ProShares Bitcoin Futures Fund obtained a three-day head begin and secured greater than 90% of the market share.
Early filers for spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs later noticed their purposes cleared on Jan. 10, 2024, the identical day bigger asset managers that filed months or years later obtained inexperienced lights.
The companies contend that such timing favors issuers with deeper distribution networks, encourages copycat filings, and concentrates belongings beneath larger manufacturers.
The authors mentioned the sample harms market integrity by weakening incentives for authentic analysis and discouraging smaller sponsors from taking early dangers.
In addition they famous that honoring submitting dates wouldn’t add materials pressure on SEC workers as a result of registration statements already arrive in sequence and may retain their authentic time gaps via the assessment cycle.
Calls echo prior public remarks
VanEck digital belongings analysis chief Matt Sigel has repeated the queue argument since 2024. On Could 23, 2024, Sigel warned that deviations undercut the Administrative Process Act’s transparency normal and power early filers to shoulder extended replace bills.
He added that refusing to comply with this normal “creates an uneven taking part in discipline for issuers who filed earlier and needed to wait longer.”
On January 22, Sigel urged the regulator’s new management to “respect the road” after the company fashioned its Crypto Activity Power.
Canary Capital chief govt Steve McClurg previewed the coordinated push throughout a late-Could panel on the Litecoin Summit in Las Vegas, telling attendees that a number of issuers deliberate a proper enchantment for a return to the queue.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart additionally commented on the letter, stating that the first-to-file strategy was normal follow till the 2024 launches of the spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.