Grayscale, a16z and Jane Street Just Clashed Over How the SEC Should Review Crypto ETFs

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s review of how it treats novel exchange-traded products has drawn a blunt split across the crypto and traditional finance industries, with Grayscale and 21Shares demanding confidential draft filings and faster reviews, while Jane Street and Charles Schwab warned that speed could come at the cost of fund quality.

The submissions, filed under the SEC’s public comment process S7-2026-24 and first reported by The Block, landed as the regulator weighs structural changes to a listing pipeline that crypto asset managers complain is too slow, too public and too easy to copy.

Grayscale wants confidential drafts and a 45-day clock

Grayscale, the firm behind one of the largest spot Bitcoin trusts, asked the SEC to allow sponsors to submit draft registrations confidentially before any public filing. In its letter, the asset manager argued that an optional confidential process would remove the incentive for competing sponsors to pile into a product idea with imitative, duplicative filings the moment it becomes visible.

The crypto asset manager also urged SEC staff to commit to responding to filings within 45 days, a firm deadline that would give issuers predictable runway instead of open-ended review cycles.

21Shares echoed the argument from a different angle. The Swiss issuer pointed to how quickly competitors can replicate a publicly filed product structure, effectively free-riding on the research, indexing and legal work of the first mover.

The SEC’s own question: is AI flooding the pipeline?

Notably, the SEC itself raised the possibility that artificial intelligence is contributing to a wave of novel ETF applications arriving in rapid succession that are largely identical. The question cuts to the heart of the review: if templated filings can be generated almost automatically, the public-comment-and-copy dynamic that Grayscale and 21Shares complain about only accelerates.

a16z: faster, but not lighter

Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has backed multiple crypto ETF issuers, pressed the SEC to shorten its review process on the grounds that filings are now submitted electronically, disclosures are largely templated and many of the same questions recur across products. Markets, a16z argued, move on a shorter timeline than the existing review period allows.

But the firm added a deliberate brake: a faster process should not mean a lighter review. The comment captures the industry’s central tension — everyone wants speed until speed applies to their own filing.

Jane Street and Schwab push back

Jane Street, one of the most active ETF market makers and authorized participants, took the opposite view on acceleration. In its letter, the firm warned that pressure to bring an ETF to market quickly can produce rushed registrations and shrink the window for sponsors to gather feedback from market makers on fund structure and liquidity.

Jane Street also proposed a structural safeguard: ETFs should be required to launch with at least two authorized participants, the firms responsible for creating and redeeming fund shares. A single-AP launch, the implication runs, concentrates operational risk in one intermediary from day one.

Charles Schwab, meanwhile, opposed making the filing process fully confidential. If the SEC does hold pre-filing discussions with a sponsor behind closed doors, Schwab argued the filing should still become public at least 75 days before the fund takes effect, preserving the transparency that lets competitors, investors and market participants prepare.

Staking receipt tokens enter through the side door

Several crypto firms used the review to raise requests well beyond filing mechanics. Multicoin Capital asked the SEC to allow qualifying staking receipt tokens — instruments representing crypto assets staked to earn rewards — inside spot crypto ETPs, including portfolios where such tokens make up substantially all of the holdings.

Multicoin filed jointly with Jito Labs, the Jito Foundation and the Solana Policy Institute, signaling a coordinated Solana-ecosystem push for staked-asset products that would follow the pattern of staked-ether funds into the Solana and multichain era.

NYSE asks for timelines exchanges can plan around

From the exchange side, NYSE requested more predictable treatment when novel products reach listing stage. Under current practice, SEC staff can ask an exchange to delay a listing while an issue is considered — without a firm timeline — even when another exchange may still be able to proceed with a similar product. That asymmetry, NYSE suggested, distorts competition between listing venues.

What happens next

Formal comments were due by August 31, though the SEC has continued to post submissions dated after the deadline. The regulator has not set a timeline for any further action, leaving the industry split on display but unresolved.

For crypto issuers, the stakes are straightforward: the listing process built for index funds a generation ago now governs products tracking an asset class that trades around the clock and spawns copycats within hours. Whether the SEC adopts confidential drafts, binding review clocks or staking-token allowances will shape which issuers can compete — and how quickly new crypto ETPs reach investors.

Market context: at the time of writing, Bitcoin trades near 79,653 USD (market cap about 1.60 trillion USD, down 0.6 percent in 24 hours), Ethereum near 2,484 USD (up 0.2 percent) and Solana near 105.77 USD (up 2.0 percent). Data as of 17:10 UTC, September 6, 2026.