The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that it needs extra time to decide on an application by VanEck-SolidX for a Bitcoin ETF. The commission revised the deadline for the decision which will be December 29th 2018.

In a post on its site on 20 June, the SEC originally said that the Cboe BZX Exchange (BZX) had registered with the SEC, “a proposed rule change to list and trade shares of SolidX Bitcoin Shares issued by the VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust”. The commission then had 45 days from this date to reach a verdict but, presumably recognised the complexity of the issue and declared another extension leaving it until 30 September 2018. The SEC’s justified its actions by stating that the commission required;

“a longer period within which to approve the proposed rule change, disapprove the proposed rule change, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove the proposed rule change.”

With this deadline now looming the SEC decided today to once more prolong the process by declaring that a new deadline would be set for the end of the year.

The SEC will make another decision by 29 December 2018 on how to proceed. It could then postpone for an additional 60 days, putting off the issue until 27 February 2019, and this would be the final cut-off point legally allowable.