SEC Punts on Canary Capital Litecoin ETF Approval

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday stopped short of giving the green light to a new crypto exchange-traded fund that would give investors exposure to Litecoin. 

The Wall Street regulator instead decided to delay giving an answer to the proposed product—which is a perfectly normal step for such applications.

Nashville, Tennessee-based Canary Capital filed the paperwork in October for the Canary Litecoin ETF. The SEC currently has dozens of altcoin ETF applications to consider following the regulator’s approval last year of spot Bitcoin ETFs—which had the most successful launch in ETF history. 

The SEC had said no to Bitcoin funds for a decade before giving them the green light, and then approved Ethereum ETFs a few months later.

Now, the SEC has new leadership following the election of crypto-friendly President Trump—and asset managers are trying their luck for other digital asset-related ETFs. 

Top asset managers like Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, and 21Shares have filed paperwork to get new crypto ETFs approved, with coins like Solana, XRP, and Cardano among the biggest targets for issuers right now.

The SEC frequently pushes back when making decisions on proposed products like ETFs, just punting on XRP and Dogecoin applications last week.

Litecoin (LTC) is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency and the 25th biggest digital coin by market cap. The asset is a forked version of Bitcoin that launched in 2011 by ex-Google employee Charlie Lee. 

The coin is currently down by 2.2% over a 24-hour period, trading hands for over $83, CoinGecko data shows. 

Edited by Andrew Hayward