On May 20, Dave Nadig, who is the managing director of ETF.com, said that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is still gathering information about Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Nadig, who is considered a leading authority on ETFs, said that while, technically the SEC faces deadlines regarding whether to approval Bitcoin ETFs, they really do not have to follow these deadlines and that there are no repercussions from them failing to do so. He went on to say that, according to information from his sources inside the agency, this is exactly what they intend on doing. They intended on delaying their decision until they feel comfortable about approving a Bitcoin ETF, which is why they are continuing to collect information about them.

Still, in spite of all the delay, Nadig remains confident that the SEC will eventually approve a Bitcoin ETF. At the same time, though, he does not believe that this approval will come anytime soon. In fact, he thinks that it will take at least another 3 months before the agency approves a Bitcoin ETF. He further thinks that the agency will become more comfortable with them once the Bitcoin market matures.

Nadig's comments came shortly after the SEC announced that it would delay deciding whether to approve a Bitcoin ETF from VanEck. Last week, the agency similarly decided to delay deciding whether to approve a Bitcoin ETF from Bitwise. In both cases, the agency requested public input regarding the decision from interested parties.

In December of 2018, Hester Peirce, who is an SEC commissioner, said that a Bitcoin ETF or an ETF denominated in another cryptocurrency is a distinct possibility. But she believes that this could be years away. She has been called "Crypto Mom" by many in the digital currency community for her support of a Bitcoin ETF proposed by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss that the SEC ultimately rejected.

Earlier this month, Gary Gensler, who was once the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said that in order for the cryptocurrency market to mature, the government needed to enact both consumer and investor protections into law.