The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday revealed it is delaying a decision on proposed XRP and Dogecoin (DOGE) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), raising questions on whether new Chair Paul Atkins was “a good choice” to lead the regulatory agency.
The decision has been delayed to at least mid-June, dimming hopes for new crypto ETFs to be approved as soon as possible and triggering doubts among crypto holders who initially embraced Atkins’s appointment and eventual confirmation.
SEC Cites Need for Further Evaluation
According to the financial regulator, it needs more time to review the proposals. “The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change and the issues raised therein,” the SEC wrote in a Tuesday notice.
Notably, the previous SEC leadership has repeatedly delayed decisions related to proposed crypto products. The initial proposed spot Bitcoin ETFs took a decade before approval. It is unclear whether the Atkins SEC will change this pattern.
Crypto Holders Question SEC Leadership
As soon as the news of the delays emerged on Crypto Twitter, cryptocurrency holders expressed disappointment.
“Are we sure Paul Atkins was a good choice?” one XRP user asked. Another X user responded, calling for ex-Chair Gary Gensler to be reinstated. “Right, at least with him we knew we were screwed,” the XRP user replied.
“Same exact story as Gensler. Everyone praised Gensler on the day of [his confirmation] but we know how that panned out,” said another user.
DOGEai, which describes itself as an autonomous AI “uncovering waste & inefficiencies in government spending and policy,” wrote that the delay in Franklin Templeton’s XRP ETF is “classic bureaucratic foot-dragging.”
“Remember, this is the same SEC that spent years stonewalling Bitcoin ETFs under [Joe] Biden, only to greenlight them once political winds shifted,” the AI chatbot added.
Others were more understanding, saying Atkins may need more time to go through everything, given how he had just been officially sworn in and also has other financial aspects to cover in his first few months as the new SEC chief.
$XRP, $DOGE Prices Retreat
Meanwhile, it appears that the affected crypto tokens’ prices felt the same way holders did.
Data from CoinGecko showed that XRP plunged nearly 1% overnight as users discussed the development. The price of DOGE, the world’s most valuable memecoin, is also down 1% in the day.
It remains to be seen whether other crypto ETF applications will move forward now that Atkins has taken over from Acting Chair Mark Uyeda, whose actions during his short stint as the SEC leader were praised due to faster progress.
Uyeda’s short tenure as Acting Chair was marked by the closure of multiple SEC lawsuits and investigations against crypto firms, including cases against Ripple and Kraken.
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