Feeling bullish about Spot Ethereum ETF? Think again. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is unlikely to approve a Spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) anytime soon, according to Spot Bitcoin ETF issuers.
Ethereum, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, has been the subject of spot ETF approval speculation since SEC Chairman Gary Gensler greenlighted 11 spot Bitcoin ETF applications in January.
Companies like BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck, which have issued Spot Bitcoin ETFs, have been waiting for the arrival of Ethereum products, but are currently just trying them out and aren't entirely sure they'll do well. There seem to be some companies as well.
Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week, a crypto event held this week, Van Eck CEO Jan Van Eck shared his pessimism about the possibility of Ethereum ETF approval.
“We were the first company in the U.S. to apply for Ethereum, and we [Ark Invest CEO] “I think Cathie Wood will probably be the first of May's candidates to be rejected,” he said. CNBCMr. Arjun Karpal.
The SEC has until late May to complete its review of VanEck's Ethereum ETF, with other applications waiting all the way through October.
Unlike Bitcoin, which has long been considered a decentralized product, the official regulatory position on whether Ethereum is a security is less clear. This made things even more difficult for ETH investors.
“I don't want to prejudge any application,” Gensler said. Yahoo Finance March. He was careful to refrain from making specific statements on the matter. However, the CFTC has actually said several times that it considers Ethereum to be a commodity, and if the SEC accepts that definition, it could speed up the approval process.
CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti also says: CNBCshared his skepticism about getting SEC approval for proof-of-stake coins like Ethereum. “I doubt anything will be approved at this time of year,” he said.
In a proof-of-stake consensus model, blocks are confirmed not by miners but by stakers, people who hold large amounts of native tokens (in this case ETH) that they lock into the network. This fact, which is now key to the operation of the Ethereum blockchain, is similar to the nature of securities, where major shareholders decide how the business works and receive rewards for their investments.
Approval of the Ethereum ETF will increase exposure to cryptocurrencies and allow new investors to indirectly purchase and trade cryptocurrencies. This also means that a potential Ethereum ETF issuer will need to store enough of his ETH to cover his 1:1 trading volume. Enthusiasts consider this bullish as this could increase the scarcity of on-chain ETH.
Although several Ethereum futures ETFs have already been approved, there is no guarantee that a spot ETF will receive the green light. There was a two-year gap between the approval of the first Bitcoin futures ETF and the first Bitcoin spot ETF.
The first Ethereum futures ETF was approved in 2023, so we may have a long way to go before the first spot ETH ETF is launched (if history repeats itself, of course).
Edited by Andrew Hayward
