"SEC Acknowledges Canary's Litecoin ETF Proposal, LTC Surges 18%"

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has acknowledged Canary Capital's proposal to list a spot Litecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), signaling that Litecoin (LTC) may be the next cryptocurrency to receive the ETF treatment in the United States. The SEC has opened a comment period for the proposal, inviting public comments to be submitted within 21 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Canary Capital submitted its S-1 registration statement with the SEC in October, indicating its intention to provide traditional investors with exposure to Litecoin, often referred to as the "silver to Bitcoin's gold." This move comes less than a week after the company initiated a spot XRP-based ETF proposal. The Nasdaq exchange filed a 19b-4 form for Canary's spot Litecoin ETF on January 16, marking the second part of a two-step process for proposing a spot crypto investment product.

Bloomberg's Senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, noted that this is the first altcoin ETF filing to receive acknowledgment from the SEC. He also pointed out that the SEC's comments on the S-1 filing indicate that this proposal is the furthest along in the process, checking all the necessary boxes. Following the SEC's acknowledgment, the price of Litecoin surged by 18.4%, trading at $132.69 at the time of this report.

If approved, Litecoin would become the third spot crypto ETF greenlighted in the United States, following Bitcoin and Ether. The question now is whether the SEC will use the entire 240-day review period or approve the proposal more rapidly. ETF filings for altcoins such as Solana (SOL) and Ripple's XRP are currently pending with the SEC, but Balchunas previously suggested that these products had a lower likelihood of being approved before Litecoin due to regulatory overhangs.

The SEC is currently led by Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda, who recently appointed fellow pro-crypto Republican Commissioner Hester Pierce to lead a crypto task force. This change in leadership marks a shift from former chair Gary Gensler, who adopted a more antagonistic position on the fast-growing crypto sector during his tenure. After leaving the SEC, Gensler returned to MIT as a professor to teach and research artificial intelligence in finance, financial tech, and regulatory