SEC greenlights review of Trump Media’s Bitcoin & Ether ETF pitch

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) formally accepted Trump Media’s application for a Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded fund, beginning the review period for the fund.

As outlined in its filing, the social media company’s ETF will provide investors access to Bitcoin and Ether through NYSE Arca-listed shares. 75% of the fund would be invested in Bitcoin, and the remaining 25% in Ether.

The Foris DAX Trust company will serve as the custodian 

Truth Social first submitted its S-1 form for its Bitcoin and Ether ETF on June 16. If approved, the firm’s fund would compete with industry heavyweights like BlackRock, whose iShares Bitcoin ETF has accumulated over $72.5 billion in assets.

The SEC is also deliberating on many other ETF applications while preparing a simplified listing structure for all these funds.

The Truth Social ETF will have Foris DAX Trust Company, part of the Crypto.com ecosystem, as the custodian for the fund, while Yorkville America Digital will sponsor it. The company’s ETF also plans to calculate its daily net asset value for Bitcoin using the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate for the Bitcoin portion, which aggregates pricing data from several leading crypto exchanges.

The fund will also use the Ether CME CF reference rate for Ether evaluation “unless otherwise determined by the Sponsor at its sole discretion.” 

The crypto custodian will also store the fund’s Bitcoin and Ether in segregated accounts, separate from other clients, with private keys kept in cold storage. 

The SEC has delayed its decision on multiple crypto ETF applications

The SEC recently held off on its decision on Fidelity’s spot Solana ETF, inviting public comments for 21 days and rebuttals for up to 35 days. The Cboe BZX Exchange initially filed a request on March 25 to list Fidelity’s proposed Solana ETF. 

James Seyffart, Bloomberg ETF analyst, commented on the delay, saying he expected it. He added that they were still waiting for some movement from the SEC on a generalized digital asset ETP framework.

In May, the commission also delayed its decision on Bitwise’s Ether ETF and Grayscale’s XRP ETF, which analysts also anticipated. At the time, the agency pushed its decision on the Bitwise application for another 45 days, claiming it needed to review a rule change and the issues it may bring forth just two days before the expected decision date.

On Grayscale’s XRP, the commission also sought public input and initiated proceedings for additional analysis to assess regulatory compliance. Seyffart also commented on the agency’s decision on both delays, saying it usually waits until the end of the review window to respond to a 19b-4 filing. 

Meanwhile, the SEC has been positive on crypto ETPs. In an X post on Monday, Seyffart described the SEC’s requests for SOL spot ETF issuers to revise and resubmit their filings by month’s end as an encouraging sign of regulatory progress on crypto ETPs.

“Keep in mind that this would just be more amendments and more back and forth, NOT approvals, as I’ve seen some people hint. Pretty much any sort of interactions between the SEC and issuers/exchanges should be viewed positively,” he added.

For the Trump Media and Technology Group,  the SEC has so far been favorable. It even approved its registration statement for a $2.3 billion Bitcoin treasury deal in June.