Grayscale, 21Shares and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), among others in the crypto industry, asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to make its review process for new exchange-traded products faster and more predictable.

On Sept. 4, blockchain outlet Decrypt reported that the industry submitted opinions focused on allowing confidential draft filings, shortening regulators’ response deadlines and permitting staking structures for spot crypto products.

The key issue is how new ETFs are reviewed. As the SEC considers how to handle new types of ETFs, it is also seeking views on whether artificial intelligence has affected the rapid mass submission of applications with similar structures. The industry has asked to be allowed to submit drafts confidentially before public filing.

Grayscale argued that such a process could reduce incentives for competitors to quickly mimic proposed products or file similar applications. It also asked that SEC staff be required to respond within 45 days. 21Shares took the same position. It pointed to the risk that competitors could rapidly copy content once an application is made public.

A16z focused on the length of the review period itself. It said procedures could be further reduced because applications are filed electronically, many disclosure formats are standardized and many questions are repeated across products. It also cited that financial markets move in shorter time units than the current review period. A16z stressed, however, that speeding up reviews should not reduce the depth of SEC scrutiny.

Opposing views were also submitted. Jane Street said pressure to bring ETFs to market quickly could make registration procedures hasty. In that case, sponsors could find it harder to sufficiently hear market makers’ views on liquidity and fund structure. Jane Street also proposed requiring at least 2 authorized participants at the time of an ETF launch. Authorized participants handle the creation and redemption of ETF shares.

Charles Schwab opposed making the entire registration process nonpublic. It said that even an application discussed privately between a sponsor and SEC staff should be made public at least 75 days before a fund becomes effective. The New York Stock Exchange separately raised concerns about timetables at the listing stage. It said SEC staff can ask an exchange to delay listing while reviewing a specific issue but sometimes do not present a fixed schedule. It said other exchanges can proceed with the process, creating inconsistency. The NYSE said the way schedules are handled needs greater predictability.

The comment process also produced requests that go beyond filing procedures and would change the structure of spot crypto products themselves. Multicoin Capital asked that staking receipt tokens that meet certain requirements be allowed to be included in spot crypto ETPs. It argued that under some structures, such tokens could in effect represent all of a product’s digital asset holdings. A staking receipt token is a token that represents crypto deposited to earn rewards.

The Jito Foundation, Jito Labs and the Solana Policy Institute also joined Multicoin in urging the SEC to establish rules allowing the use of staking receipt tokens in spot crypto products. This would broaden the discussion beyond adjusting review speed to how far to expand what is allowed for spot crypto ETFs and ETPs.

The SEC’s deadline for comments was Aug. 31. The SEC is continuing to publish comment letters submitted after the deadline and has not presented a specific timetable for follow-up action. As a result, future discussions are expected to focus on how to strike a balance between shortening review procedures, principles of disclosure and calls to broaden product structures.