EVEN THOUGH BITCOIN ETFs HAVE ALREADY BEEN APPROVED, THE OUTCOME OF THE APPROVAL FOR ETH ETFs IS STILL UNCERTAIN. VANECK, ARK, AND 21SHARES AWAIT IMPORTANT DECISIONS FROM THE SEC ON THEIR ETHEREUM ETFs.
By May 23, the SEC must make a decision on VanEck’s application for a spot ETF on ethereum.
VanEck is not the only company awaiting approval. The deadline for the application submitted by ARK Investment Management with 21Shares is May 24, just one day after VanEck’s. Recently, ARK and 21Shares updated their application to remove a clause related to staking.
MIXED HOPES As for expectations regarding the SEC’s decision, analysts are not particularly optimistic. Ric Edelman, head of the Digital Asset Council of Financial Professionals, recently told CNBC that he “would be surprised if the SEC said yes at this point,” citing the lack of alignment between the SEC and VanEck.
VanEck’s CEO, Jan van Eck, is also not optimistic about the approval of his company’s ethereum ETF application. In April, van Eck told CNBC that he expects his company’s application will “probably be rejected.”
“The way the legal process works is that regulators will provide you with comments on your application, and this happened for weeks and weeks before the bitcoin ETFs — and at the moment, regarding ethereum, there is absolute silence,” added VanEck’s CEO.
However, until yesterday when the SEC requested urgent modifications in the ETF filings, analysts assigned a 75% approval rate, causing ETH’s price to spike by over 10% daily. An approval would lead to an even greater price increase and would likely trigger a process called “alt season,” bringing many other layer-1 cryptocurrencies to the forefront, outperforming the trend of the king, Bitcoin.
ETHEREUM: COMMODITY OR SECURITY? A question submitted by BlackRock in March regarding a spot ETF on ethereum indicated that the SEC might consider classifying ethereum as a security, not as a commodity. The question delayed BlackRock’s decision until June and required public comments on whether ETH is a security or a commodity.
Meanwhile, Grayscale Investments withdrew its application for an ethereum futures ETF. This comes as Grayscale awaits approval of its proposal to convert the Grayscale Ethereum Trust into a spot ETF on ethereum.
However, the matter is seeing the SEC repeatedly defeated by American judges and various influential figures accusing the American entity of having a too hostile attitude towards cryptocurrencies.
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