With the delays I am seeing for more than a year now on Bitcoin related ETFs I am starting to wonder if the SEC is just purposely denying and extending the deadline and that they are just following on one of their higher ups above them.
They aren't purposely denying/delaying decisions. It's a $4.5 trillion ETF market that the SEC guards, and Bitcoin hasn't done anything to show why it should be allowed to be part of that market. How it works is that the SEC has a list with requirements, where each deadline allows the filler to meat their requirements, and they fail time on time again.
One aspect that plays a very important role, and the fillers can't do anything about, is what's going in the ecosystem around Bitcoin. The fake exchange volumes and Tether drama isn't helping at all.
Because this isn't the SEC I know who acts quickly when it involves around their Stock Market or even their Money Market.
The SEC has always been very slow. There is a priority queue where large fishes have front row seats and the smaller fishes wait somewhere in the back.
The same applies to the CFTC and Bakkt. Bakkt isn't important enough to allocate a whole lot of time and effort to.