The US government shutdown delayed the approval of exchange-traded fund (ETF) filings by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which puts the “altcoin ETF floodgates” on hold.
In practice, this freezes the more than 100 crypto-related filings until funding is restored, including the S-1 effectiveness work that issuers need to complete to launch spot products.
“Looks like a prolonged government shutdown would definitely impact the launch of new spot crypto ETFs… ETF Cryptober might be on hold for a bit.”
Issuers had primed October as the month when altcoin ETFs would finally clear the runway, but then the government shut down.
That calendar is now threatened. The SEC’s plan is explicit about what stops during a lapse: no reviews, no accelerations, and no new product approvals. Even with listing standards in place and prospectuses updated, launches require staff action that the agency won’t take during a shutdown.
Nevertheless, none of this reverses the policy trajectory. The generic-standards framework still lowers friction once doors reopen, and the Solana cohort remains first in line.
For now, the altcoin ETF floodgates stay shut. When appropriations return, the backlog becomes a sequencing problem rather than a policy one.
