Crypto ETFs Using New Listing Standards: Pantera's Paglia

Watch Crypto ETFs Using New Listing Standards: Pantera's Paglia - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

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00:00So I'm curious whether you advise Bitwise on the launch of their Solana ETF since it was done

00:05during the shutdown and it was done through this, I guess, roundabout way that wasn't available

00:10before. Sure. So as you mentioned, we were one of the seed investors in their Bitcoin ETF and they

00:17are one of our portfolio companies. We have a great relationship with them, but we were not

00:20directly involved in the Solana ETF. So I'm happy to talk about what we understand as to how that

00:25actually did get launched during the government shutdown, which I understand might seem a little

00:28bit bizarre, right? Like it's kind of an interesting timing. So do it. Yeah. Tell us how that

00:33happened. So there's actually not any super crazy story here. So in September, the SEC issued these

00:40new guidelines for listings for certain exchange traded products. They're basically give sort of a

00:46direct launch provided that you meet certain criteria. Criteria being the underlying reference

00:52asset is something that has already kind of already been approved in this type of product.

00:55No new novel features, no additional, you know, futures or any sort of additional kind of

01:01tweaks to the product. If you have an existing framework, which obviously you've seen bitwise

01:05with the Bitcoin ETF, the ETF came out right after that. The Solana ETF was very similar and it kind

01:11of fit that mold to go under these new listing standards to either go to NYSE or NASDAQ.

01:17I would say, however, that's all good and makes sense. The behind the scenes stuff is like,

01:22this didn't just happen overnight, right? Like you don't just file an application. It doesn't just go

01:25live in 20 days. We know that Bitwise was speaking to the SEC. They were going, you know, back and

01:30forth, right? They have these conversations. They were fairly certain that when they put the

01:33application, they were going to meet these criteria, similar to these other ETFs that launched,

01:37right? Like this isn't just you file it during the shutdown and it gets launched. I think the other

01:42thing that's really important to note, we're in a government shutdown, but that doesn't mean there's

01:45literally nobody working. There are skeleton crews at all of these agencies. So there was an opportunity if

01:50somebody were to look at these applications and say, you know what? You don't fit within these

01:53criteria of this new listing standard that we've announced for an accelerated launch.

01:57We're going to actually put the stop here and we're going to make you kind of come back and forth

02:01and go back through a more longer comment period. So if the SEC stepped in and contacted anyone at

02:06any point, then that would be the signal that this is not going to go ahead. That didn't happen

02:10with these relaunches. Evidently. Yep. Does the successful launches of the Bitwise Solana ETF and the

02:17Canary's pair of ETFs provide a path for more issuers to use this more streamlined approval

02:23process? I mean, do you think that this will become a thing, continue to be a thing even after

02:27the government shutdown ends? I think so. I mean, they put these new listing standards out there for

02:31a reason. I think the timing is just really interesting that it happened to come out during

02:36the shutdown, but the plan would be to kind of create efficiency for launches. It's better from a

02:40resource perspective. And again, if you're within this very limited framework where you actually have

02:45this preexisting thing that you're just modeling after, it makes a ton of sense.