By Susie Violet Ward · Forbes · 10 October 2023
In October 2023, with members of Congress pressing the SEC, Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg said the regulator was actively engaging with spot bitcoin ETF issuers for the first time, considered rejection unlikely and put the chance of approval by the end of the year at 75%. Steven Schoenfeld, a former BlackRock executive, expected approval within three to six months, probably for several filings at once.
Grayscale’s court victory over the SEC, which required the regulator to reconsider its application to convert its bitcoin trust into an ETF, added to the optimism, and the discount on the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust narrowed ahead of a 13 October deadline for the SEC’s next move. The article cited estimates that up to $17.7 trillion of institutional money could flow into bitcoin ETF products, and expected approval by early 2024, ahead of the halving.