SEC Postpones Litecoin (LTC) ETF Application from Canary Capital

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has further delayed making a decision on Canary Capital’s proposal for a spot Litecoin (LTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF). This follows the agency’s postponement of several other applications for spot crypto ETFs last week, including XRP, Hedera, and Dogecoin; however, it hadn’t previously acted on the Canary Litecoin ETF, which had raised hopes that the regulator might treat this fund differently.

On Monday, the official deadline, the regulator announced the delay and requested public comments regarding the proposal’s compliance with regulatory requirements. “In particular, the Commission seeks comment on whether the proposal to list and trade Shares of the Trust, which would hold LTC, is designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices or raises any new or novel concerns not previously contemplated by the Commission,” the agency stated in a filing.

Canary Capital, founded by former Valkyrie Funds co-founder Steven McClurg last year, submitted initial paperwork for the fund in October. LTC, with a market cap of $6.6 billion, is the native cryptocurrency of Litecoin, an open-source blockchain project that utilizes code similar to Bitcoin’s (BTC). ETF experts at Bloomberg Intelligence had anticipated that LTC would be the next to be involved in an ETF, fueled by discussion that Canary Capital had received feedback from the SEC regarding its application back in January.

Issuers are still awaiting the first major decision on crypto ETFs from recently appointed SEC chair Paul Atkins, who began his term in April. Atkins’ succession of former Chair Gary Gensler has been described as a significant shift by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.