The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again deferred its decision on the pending applications for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The announcement, made last Thursday, affects all applicants, including major financial institutions like BlackRock, WisdomTree, Invesco Galaxy, Wise Origin, VanEck, Bitwise, and Valkyrie Digital Assets.
Bitcoin‘s value took an immediate hit following the news, dropping 4.4% over the past 24 hours to $25,900.

The decision to delay was met with disappointment by many in the cryptocurrency community who had hoped that a Bitcoin ETF would provide a more accessible investment vehicle for retail investors, eliminating the need for setting up a digital crypto wallet or buying Bitcoin directly.
The SEC has now postponed the decision until October, extending the comment period and allowing for increased public feedback on the applications.
The new deadlines for Wise Origin, Galaxy, and WisdomTree are set for October 17, while Valkyrie and Bitwise have until October 16 and 19, respectively. According to SEC regulations, the agency has a total of 240 days from the start of its review to make a final decision.
This development comes after Grayscale’s recent victory against the SEC, where the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals deemed some of the regulator’s arguments against Bitcoin ETF applications as “arbitrary and capricious”.
Grayscale argued that the SEC lacked a solid basis to reject its bid to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an ETF. The court ordered the SEC to review the application once again.
Judge Neomi Rao, writing for the unanimous court, criticized the SEC’s inconsistent stance on approving bitcoin futures ETFs but not spot ETFs, given the “99.9% correlation” between spot and futures market prices.