Optimism fuels more crypto ETF filings despite LTC fund delay

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

A US litecoin ETF — and other altcoin products — will have to wait at least a little longer.

But the chance such products see the light of day still appears quite good — and issuers continue plotting more crypto ETFs.

The SEC decided on Monday to delay its ruling on Canary Capital’s proposed spot LTC offering. It requested the following:

We might not get a ruling until the agency’s final deadline in October.

Prior to the Monday delay filing, Bloomberg Intelligence’s James Seyffart held out hope that we could see a different result, writing on X that the “SEC went early & delayed a bunch of filings but not this. If any asset has a chance of early approval it’s Litecoin IMO.”

You might recall that in February, he and colleague Eric Balchunas put the odds of a US spot litecoin ETF launching by the end of 2025 at 90%.

The thinking went that LTC was one of the few assets the SEC had not previously labeled as a security. Also, like bitcoin, litecoin uses the proof-of-work consensus mechanism.

Those 90% odds remain intact, Balchunas noted last week.

Loading Tweet..

The Bloomberg pros also give spot solana products a 90% chance of approval by the year’s end. XRP products are next highest, at 85%.

CME Group introduced SOL futures contracts in March. The derivatives marketplace is set to unveil XRP futures on May 19.

There are also products currently holding both BTC and ETH that want to add more assets. Hashdex CIO Samir Kerbage called indexing “the next frontier” in the crypto investing space, telling me in March that his firm wants to ultimately create “the Nasdaq 100 for crypto.”

With optimism comes more filings.

Canary last week applied for a product that would hold SEI — a token with a market cap of roughly $1 billion (ranking 90th on CoinGecko). It would seek to earn more SEI “through the validation of transactions in the SEI Network’s proof-of-stake process,” the April 30 filing notes.

Then on May 2, VanEck proposed an ETF offering exposure to BNB — the native token of the Binance-created BNB Chain. BNB’s market cap of ~$87 billion is fifth-highest among crypto assets — sitting between XRP (~$123 billion) and SOL (~$74 billion).

Kyle DaCruz, VanEck’s director of digital assets product, previously told me the SEC could wait for legislation — noting that following a framework would be easier than evaluating each crypto asset one by one.

Just when you thought you got away from Washington politics.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
Lightspeed: All things Solana.
The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.