Bitwise Nears Historic Launch of First-Ever Chainlink ETF Despite SEC Foot-Dragging
Wall Street's crypto pivot hits another milestone—or another bureaucratic speed bump.
Bitwise Asset Management just cleared another hurdle in its race to launch the first-ever Chainlink (LINK) exchange-traded fund (ETF), despite the SEC's trademark 'deliberation' tactics. The filing now enters the make-or-break phase as regulators play their favorite game: hurry-up-and-wait.
Why this matters
Chainlink's oracle network already underpins billions in DeFi smart contracts. An ETF would give institutional investors their first pure-play exposure—no self-custody headaches, just ticker symbol convenience. Bitwise's move signals that crypto's infrastructure layer is maturing fast enough for Wall Street's taste.
The regulatory reality check
The SEC's delays aren't surprising—they've slow-walked every crypto ETF since Bitcoin's debut. But here's the twist: Chainlink's actual revenue model (paying node operators for real-world data) might finally check the 'sufficiently decentralized' box that haunts other tokens. Whether that satisfies Gary Gensler's ever-shifting standards? That's the $64,000 question—or in this case, the $7 billion market cap question.
Bottom line: If approved, this ETF won't just be a win for LINK bulls. It'll prove crypto can play the SEC's game—and still disrupt the $50 trillion asset management industry. Just don't hold your breath waiting for the paperwork.
Solana ETFs Outperform Expectations With 10-Day Inflow Run
Grayscale, another major player in digital asset management, is also pursuing its own spot Chainlink ETF. Unlike Bitwise’s proposal, Grayscale’s product seeks to incorporate staking, a feature that could complicate the approval process given current regulatory uncertainty around yield-generating crypto assets.
The growing number of ETF filings – covering tokens such as Solana, Avalanche, Hedera, and Dogecoin – reflects an accelerating effort by fund managers to expand crypto exposure beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. The SEC’s introduction of new “generic listing standards” earlier this year is also expected to streamline approvals by allowing certain crypto ETFs to move forward without case-by-case reviews.
If the process continues smoothly, Bitwise’s Chainlink ETF could be among the next wave of altcoin funds to reach U.S. markets – signaling another step toward broader institutional adoption of blockchain asset
