SEC opens 60-day comment period on reworking ETF rules, with crypto funds in the frame

The SEC is asking the public whether its fast-track ETF listing process should stretch to cover assets that aren't traditional securities — crypto among them — but it has changed no rule yet.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a request for comment on overhauling how it handles "novel" exchange-traded funds, opening a 60-day window for public input, CoinDesk reported on June 30. The agency frames the move as a response to market changes and poses questions about its automated process — the one that lets ETFs meeting certain conditions list without applying for a case-by-case exemption from the regulator.

The central legal question the SEC put on the table: can an ETF provider whose principal strategy is to invest in assets that aren't securities under the Investment Company Act still qualify as an investment company? The request also asks about how long ETFs take to become effective and what must be disclosed along the way. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement that "innovation in exchange-traded funds depends on a consistent, transparent, and efficient regulatory framework," and that the commission wants input on how the U.S. ETF market "can continue to grow and innovate while serving investors effectively."

TD Cowen policy analyst Jaret Seiberg, in a note to clients, read it as groundwork rather than action: the request "is designed to build a record that could be used to justify policy changes in the future that would permit ETFs focused on a broader universe of assets," potentially including "those based on event contracts, crypto assets and single-stock strategies." The current streamlined regime has coincided with the U.S. ETF market growing from $4 trillion in 2019 to $12 trillion in 2025, per CoinDesk.

Key facts

• 60-day public comment period on changes to ETF listing rules, opened June 30 (CoinDesk).
• Core question: whether funds holding non-securities (e.g. crypto) can be "investment companies" under the Investment Company Act (SEC request, via CoinDesk).
• U.S. ETF market: $4T (2019) → $12T (2025) (CoinDesk).
• Atkins' SEC has flagged tokenization of securities and crypto as priorities (CoinDesk).
• Analyst read — Jaret Seiberg, TD Cowen: a record-building exercise toward broader-asset ETFs, including event contracts and crypto (note to clients, via CoinDesk).

The real-world read

Nothing has actually changed. This is a request for comment — questions, not a rule — and even a friendly analyst (Seiberg) calls it record-building "for the future," language worth holding onto against any headline that reads it as a done deal. The "response to market changes" framing is the SEC's own; the timing cuts both ways, given CoinDesk's own reporting that spot bitcoin ETFs are tracking their worst month on record with roughly $4 billion in outflows. Atkins' pro-innovation quote is the chairman's framing of his own agency's priorities — read it as a signal of direction, not a neutral description.

One caveat on sourcing: The Block also covered this (headline citing a "crypto fund surge" and "prediction markets push"), but its page sits behind a bot wall and isn't publicly readable, so that framing can't be independently assessed.

This is news coverage, not financial advice.

Sources

• CoinDesk (Tier 2, secondary), "SEC giving novel ETFs a rethink…," June 30 — primary source for the comment period, the Investment Company Act question, the Atkins statement, the $4T→$12T figures, and the Seiberg note.
• The Block (Tier 2, secondary), "SEC opens ETF rule review following crypto fund surge, prediction markets push," June 30 — headline only; article body was inaccessible (bot-verification wall). Not marketing.