SEC lets BlackRock bitcoin ETF deadline pass under extended review

September 2, 2023, was the Securities and Exchange Commission’s first scheduled decision point for Nasdaq’s proposal to list the iShares Bitcoin Trust, a spot-bitcoin exchange-traded product associated with BlackRock. The date passed without an approval or rejection because the SEC had formally extended its review two days earlier.

The extension mattered beyond one application. BlackRock was the world’s largest asset manager, and its filing had become a prominent test of whether a large traditional-finance sponsor could overcome the objections that had blocked every previous U.S. spot-bitcoin exchange-traded product. The deadline also arrived four days after a federal appeals court rejected the SEC’s reasoning in the separate Grayscale case.

The statutory clock moved to October

Nasdaq filed the proposed rule change on June 29, 2023. The SEC published notice in the Federal Register on July 19, starting an initial 45-day review period under Section 19(b)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act.

In its August 31 order, the SEC identified September 2 as the 45th day after publication. The agency invoked its authority to designate a longer review period, saying it required sufficient time to consider the proposal and the issues it raised. It designated October 17, 2023, as the next date by which it would approve, disapprove or begin proceedings to determine whether to disapprove the rule change.

That language was procedural. The order did not decide whether bitcoin was a security, endorse BlackRock’s product, authorize trading or conclude that Nasdaq’s proposed market-surveillance arrangements were adequate. On September 2, the application remained pending.

The distinction was important because contemporaneous reports sometimes treated a postponement as evidence for or against eventual approval. The surviving primary record supports only a narrower conclusion: the SEC used an extension expressly permitted by the statute and did not reach the merits by the original deadline.

Grayscale changed the institutional backdrop

The timing gave the otherwise routine extension greater significance. On August 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted Grayscale Investments’ petition and vacated the SEC order that had rejected the proposed conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded product.

The court held that the SEC had failed to explain why it treated Grayscale’s spot product differently from approved bitcoin-futures products. The opinion cited evidence that the spot and CME futures markets were closely correlated and noted that the relevant listing exchanges had identical surveillance-sharing agreements with the CME.

The ruling did not order the SEC to approve Grayscale’s conversion, and it did not approve BlackRock’s separate application. It instead required consistent, adequately explained agency decision-making. As of September 2, the regulatory consequence was therefore increased pressure on the SEC’s reasoning, not a licensed U.S. spot-bitcoin fund.

Bitcoin’s rally had already reversed

The market response demonstrated how strongly traders associated the court and ETF process with potential institutional access. Associated Press reported that bitcoin jumped 8% on August 29 after the Grayscale decision. Fortune subsequently reported that bitcoin reached approximately $28,000 before falling to about $25,700 by September 1, near its pre-ruling level.

Those figures were contemporaneous BTC/USD market snapshots, not a consolidated September 2 closing price. Crypto trades continuously across venues, and the cited reports did not identify a single regulated closing auction. They establish the scale and reversal of the short-lived reaction but cannot prove that the SEC extension alone caused every trade.

By September 2, the verifiable development was institutional rather than final: a major applicant remained in the queue, the regulator had gained additional time, and the appeals court had narrowed the room for unexplained differences between spot and futures products. Approval, rejection and the practical shape of any U.S. spot-bitcoin market were still unresolved.