SEC funding gap halts new crypto ETF reviews as fiscal year begins without a budget

ChainCatcher report, according to HOGE Wire, the U.S. federal fiscal year began on October 1, 2026, without a budget, causing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to enter a funding lapse period, during which new cryptocurrency ETF reviews have been halted. Registration statements cannot be declared effective, and comment letters are no longer issued. Existing listed products remain unaffected; BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, and Grayscale-related products can still be traded, with subscriptions and redemptions continuing as normal. Cryptocurrency ETFs require both an exchange-submitted Form 19b-4 and an issuer-submitted Form S-1 or N-1A; both pathways are suspended during the funding lapse. On September 17, 2025, the SEC approved a generic listing standard for commodity trust shares, allowing eligible products to bypass individual 19b-4 filings, reducing review time from up to approximately 240 days to about 75 days; leveraged, inverse, actively managed, loaned, or staked products are not covered under this template. The article notes that over 90 pending applications were outstanding as October began, some with deadlines early in the month. Nate Geraci told Decrypt that what the industry calls “ETF Cryptober” may be temporarily put on hold—this is a delay, not a rejection. The article also states that on March 17, 2026, the SEC and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission jointly clarified that protocol staking does not constitute a securities offering or sale. BlackRock’s Ethereum product, ETHB, is listed on Nasdaq with a fee of 0.25%, and 82% of staking rewards are distributed to investors.