Grayscale, 21Shares and Andreessen Horowitz are pressing the SEC to speed up its ETF review process and allow confidential draft registrations, in public comments filed as part of the regulator’s review of how it treats novel funds.
The comments went into SEC docket S7-2026-24, opened after a surge of crypto and prediction market fund applications. The Block reported the filings on September 4, 2026. The deadline for comments was August 31, though the SEC has continued posting submissions dated after it and has not set a timeline for any action.
What the Sponsors Want
Grayscale asked the SEC to permit confidential draft registrations for proposed exchange-traded products before they become public, arguing that an optional confidential process would reduce the incentive for competing sponsors to file imitative or duplicative products. The asset manager also wants SEC staff to commit to responding within 45 days.
21Shares made a similar request, pointing to how quickly competitors can copy a public filing. The SEC itself had asked in the docket whether artificial intelligence is contributing to a wave of largely identical novel ETF applications arriving in rapid succession.
A16z argued for a shorter review outright. Its comment noted that filings are now submitted electronically, disclosures are largely templated, and the same questions recur across products. Markets also move faster than the existing review window, the firm said, while adding that a faster process should not mean a lighter review.
The Pushback
Jane Street took the other side on speed. The trading firm said pressure to reach market quickly can produce rushed registrations and leaves less time for sponsors to get feedback from market makers on fund structure and liquidity. It proposed requiring ETFs to launch with at least two authorized participants, the firms that handle creation and redemption of fund shares. Without enough authorized participants at launch, spreads widen and tracking suffers, which is what burned several thinly traded funds in past cycles.
Charles Schwab opposed making the filing process fully confidential. If the SEC does hold confidential talks with a sponsor, Schwab argued the filing should become public at least 75 days before the fund takes effect. The broker’s position reflects a practical concern: other market participants need time to prepare liquidity, lending and hedging arrangements around a new product before it starts trading.
Staking and Exchange Concerns
Several crypto firms used the review to ask for changes beyond timelines. Multicoin Capital wants qualifying staking receipt tokens, which represent assets staked to earn rewards, to be allowed in spot crypto ETPs, potentially making up substantially all of a fund’s digital asset holdings. Jito Labs, the Jito Foundation and the Solana Policy Institute filed a joint response with Multicoin asking the SEC to write rules for staking receipt tokens in spot products. Staking yield inside an ETF wrapper has been one of the most requested features from issuers since the spot ether funds launched, and the SEC has so far allowed it only in limited forms.
From the exchange side, NYSE asked for more predictable timelines when novel products reach trading floors. It said SEC staff can currently ask an exchange to delay a listing while an issue is considered, without a firm deadline, even when a rival exchange could still proceed with the same product. That asymmetry has shaped several recent crypto ETP races, where one exchange listed days or weeks ahead of another carrying the identical fund.
Why It Matters
The review lands at a moment when crypto ETPs are a proven business. US spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in $986.9 million last week, capping a three-week run of $3.8 billion, the strongest of 2026, and issuers are racing to extend the wrapper to altcoins, staking and prediction markets. Whoever shapes the review rules controls how fast that next wave of products reaches investors.
A 45-day staff response commitment and confidential drafts would compress launch timelines significantly. The authorized participant requirement Jane Street favors would slow them. The SEC has given no indication of which direction it leans, and with the CLARITY Act Senate vote approaching in mid-September, market structure questions are stacking up faster than the agency is answering them. Rule changes from this docket would also apply to any tokenized stock or fund products built on public blockchains, which ties the outcome to the broader SEC push to let blockchains carry legal ownership records.
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