Investors hoping for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approval for various exchange-traded funds tracking various altcoins will have to wait even longer as the partial government shutdown drags on.
The regulator said: As outlined in the contingency plan highlighted on its website, it will not be “reviewing or approving applications” for products or providing any other “non-emergency support to registrants” during the closure..
The SEC is currently reviewing more than 90 applications for ETFs based on various altcoin spot prices, token combinations, and various digital asset strategies, and Bloomberg fund analysts predict approvals will likely be announced in early October, starting with a Solana-focused product.
“Crypto ETF approval season is officially here!” Eric Balciunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, quipped in a post on Tuesday.
Issuers from the world of traditional finance and digital assets are also proposing funds based on XRP, Cardano, Litecoin, Dogecoin, etc., among others.
Now, as Senate Republicans and Democrats seek to resolve a budget impasse, an October schedule is looking increasingly unrealistic.
As of late Wednesday, both sides were locked in that their budget proposals would not garner enough votes to override the filibuster.
In the meantime, government agencies have had to scale back their daily operations. The SEC said it would limit its workforce “until further notice.”
“The shutdown will definitely impact the launch of new spot crypto ETFs,” Nate Geraci, co-founder of industry group ETF Institute, wrote in a Twitter post on Wednesday.
“ETF Cryptober may be on hold for a while,” he added.
The prolonged government shutdown definitely seems to have an impact on the launch of new spot crypto ETFs…
ETF Cryptober may be on hold for a while.
From the SEC’s “Appropriations Lapse and Government Shutdown Strategy”… pic.twitter.com/Z6gY1bJbUt
— Nate Gerici (@NateGerici) October 1, 2025
The high volume of applications over the past 18 months comes as issuers of both traditional finance and cryptocurrencies seek to address the surge in demand for digital asset-focused products following the dramatic success of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot funds.
The 11 BTC funds currently manage approximately $150 billion in assets (AUM), making them the fastest-growing ETFs in the industry’s 32-year history and accounting for more than half of the total, according to data analytics platform Coinglass and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust. The Ethereum fund currently has over $22 billion in assets under management.
Solana, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of more than $118 billion, was recently trading up more than 6% above $222, amid an extended rally in crypto prices on Wednesday as investors were largely untroubled by the budget impasse or turned to crypto as a safe-haven asset.