Breaking: SEC’s Bitcoin ETF Verdict Looms by October—Fidelity Demands In-Kind BTC Redemptions

The crypto world holds its breath as regulators inch toward a landmark decision.

Fidelity just upped the ante—pushing for physical Bitcoin redemptions in its ETF bid. No cash settlements, no compromises. Just raw crypto exposure for Wall Street.

Here’s why it matters:

• In-kind redemptions mean investors get actual Bitcoin—not cash equivalents. Big win for crypto purists.

• The SEC’s October deadline puts pressure on legacy finance to adapt or get left behind.

• Institutional adoption hangs in the balance—again. Because nothing says 'progress' like waiting years for basic financial instruments.

One thing’s certain: When traditional finance finally embraces crypto, they’ll pretend they invented it.

Fidelity’s in-kind redemption approval is likely to come in October

While rumors of approvals have been debunked, Seyffart noted that it is likely to come by October. According to him, this is because the first official deadline for the SEC to decide on the pending in-kind amendments is around October 10.

He said:

“Official deadline for any sort of In-kind create/redeem is in October (~Oct 10). Our base case is that they will all be approved by October.”

However, he acknowledged that the recent filing of amendments by the CBOE is a positive sign because it shows that work is going on at the SEC to finalize this decision, with firms also fine-tuning their applications.

Interestingly, this is not the only crypto ETF decision before the SEC. The regulator also has a decision to make on the hundreds of spot crypto  ETFs applications before it, and has yet to lift the stay orders on the two multi-assets funds approved for their conversion to ETFs.

Bitcoin ETFs see three days of outflows

Meanwhile, Bitcoin ETFs have now seen three days of consecutive outflows this week in what appears to be a continuation of sell-offs happening to the underlying asset since it reached the peak above $123,000.

According to data from Farside Investors, the products have seen a combined outflow of $285.2 million in those three days, with Ark 21Shares ARKB responsible for most of the outflows. Interestingly, BlackRock IBIT has seen no outflow during this time; instead, it had two days of zero flows and recorded $142.6 million in inflows on Wednesday.

Despite the broader outflows for spot Bitcoin ETFs, analysts believe institutional investors remain behind the rally. CryptoQuant verified analyst Burak Kesmeci noted that on-chain data and Google Trends show that accumulation has been from big players while retail has been selling since early 2023.

He said:

“Searches for ‘Bitcoin’ are not at their lowest in the past 5 years, but they are still quite muted. So there is no retail FOMO or HYPE at this point. The crowd has not awakened yet. This cycle looks nothing like the madness of 2021.”

With retail yet to get involved and BTC already scaling multiple peaks, Kesmeci believes that Bitcoin might still have more room to go up. However, he noted that retail entry could mark a market top.

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