US Shutdown Means Bitcoin ETF Could Go Live Soon

The United States Government are in the midst of a historical shutdown, one that has continued for over 30 days now. Shutdowns within the US government are not as bizarre as you might think, they are commonplace within US politics however this time, the shutdown has continued on for a historical length of time, with no view to when it might come to an end.

What does the shutdown entail?

The shutdown does what it says on the tin, the government has shut down and therefore nobody is working. The government and it’s staff are not at work and nobody is making decisions, as a matter of fact even the governments catering team have shutdown, leaving President Donald Trump to make a mass purchase of McDonalds in order to feed a visiting College Football team due to the fact that they had no staff in to cook for them.

Why has the government shutdown?

According to CNN:

“Congressional lawmakers and President Donald Trump failed to come up with an agreement to fund the parts of the government on Saturday after funding for roughly a quarter of the federal government ran out on Friday night at midnight.”

In more recent coverage of the story:

“A White House official said using funds from civil asset forfeiture is one of several ideas the White House has considered as administration officials search for options that could allow President Trump to fund construction of his border wall if lawmakers don’t reach a deal. The official confirmed the White House has also looked into diverting disaster relief funds — but no decision has been made as to what Trump might do to bypass Congress for wall money, if anything at all. Trump said today he would like to avoid declaring a national emergency right now, as he called on Congress to do its job.”

Nobody can agree what to do next

This seems to be a bit of a never ending battle, nobody can agree on what to do next, though we expect that sometime, somehow Trump will get his own way. Whilst this continues, there are major implications for the looming Bitcoin ETF decision deadline, big implications that we should all consider, simply because if this shutdown continues, the Vaneck SolidX Bitcoin ETF could reap automatic approval.

During the shutdown, the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) operations are also affected. As it stands, based on their most recent statement the deadline for the ETF approval stands to arrive on The 27th of February 2019. As a direct result of the current shutdown, the SEC are currently unable to apply to extend that deadline. According to Bitcoin.com, Jake Chervinsky, a prolific lawyer in the United States has stated:

“The SEC doesn’t have the power to extend the 240-day deadline. The statute absolutely prohibits any further delays … By law, that means if the SEC fails to make a decision by the February 27 deadline, the ETF will be automatically approved.”

We should consider that during this shutdown, some of the SEC processes are still in place, the SEC haven’t fully ceased to operate, therefore we can expect that on a surface level at least, they are still discussing the legality and the processes of the Bitcoin ETF - they will make a decision if they are unable to extend their deadline because if they don’t the Vaneck SolidX Bitcoin ETF will be automatically approved, this in turn would make a laughing stock of the entire approval process, one that has been going on for many months now.

Chervinsky has added:

“In fact, the SEC has *already* taken action during the shutdown to avoid missing deadlines on other proposed rule changes … the SEC has a skeleton crew handling proposed rule changes during the shutdown. It isn’t likely to stay in effect for long. Automatic approval isn’t a lifetime guarantee & can be undone easily. When the shutdown ends, the SEC can just force the ETF to be delisted.”

Chervinsky believes that the SEC are still working on this and that if the shutdown continues, they will make a decision. Automatic approval is very unlikely but in a sense, it is possible. Moreover we have to consider that this shutdown might not go on long enough for the SEC to require a deadline extension, though, we believe that if it does go on any longer, assuming it ends in time for the SEC to apply for an extension, they will.

If we see a Bitcoin ETF approved as a result of this, then hopefully we will finally see some green sweep through the markets. This whole shutdown saga, in reference to the SEC is one to keep an eye on for now. If we start to see signs that an automatic approval is looming, get ready for a surge. It’s hard to predict what might happen here, therefore hold on and watch closely!

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