Will the SEC approve an Ethereum ETF this year?
Market participants' optimism is waning, and the SEC's current stance is Ethereum Now that the securities have been made public, those hopes may have been dashed forever.
“If the SEC approves a spot Ethereum ETF before the election, I would put on my HODL hat,” said Matthew Siegel, head of digital asset research at Ethereum ETF applicant VanEck. Decryption.
it is, A lawsuit filed last week By Ethereum Software Company consensus To the SEC, the commission said that Ethereum (ETH) Unregistered security—And the SEC has been conducting an investigation based on that for the past year. ConsenSys hopes the court will declare Ethereum a non-security security, preempting any future charges from the SEC. (Disclosure: ConsenSys Decryption. )
To be clear, the SEC has not yet brought charges against ConsenSys or any other company that formally claims that Ethereum is a security.But the revelations in the Ethereum giant's lawsuit are already having far-reaching implications, with leading lawmakers in Washington Blame SEC Chairman Gary Gensler lied to Congress last year about the SEC's position on ETH.
The long-term effects of the SEC investigation into Ethereum will continue, but in the shorter term, this means a spot Ethereum ETF probably won't happen — at least not without another legal battle.
The spot market Ethereum ETF allows Wall Street companies and investors to indirectly gain exposure to ETH without using a crypto exchange or wallet. After a decade of denials from the SEC. Bitcoin ETF finally approved It became available for trading on U.S. markets in January, but only after Grayscale, one of the largest digital asset managers in cryptocurrencies, filed a lawsuit with the SEC to make it happen. Ta.
Still, after the Bitcoin ETF was given the green light, analysts said is assumed A spot ETH ETF will likely follow soon after and be approved by the summer. Right now, Wall Street analysts and ETF issuers aren't so sure.
Ethereum ETF applicants to receive response from SEC regarding approval By May 23rd. As of last month, analysts have It's already cold regarding the prospects for approval of these initial applications. This week's news has only further convinced experts that ETH ETF applications still have a ways to go.
Eric Balciunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, tweeted this week that with the SEC's position on ETH's safety status now clear, there's a good chance a spot ETH ETF won't be hitting Wall Street anytime soon. expressed his opinion. That's because commodity and securities-based ETFs operate under different rules, he said.
But the SEC's apparent hostility towards Ethereum doesn't seem to be scaring off would-be ETH ETF issuers, at least not yet. A spokesperson for virtual currency fund manager 21Shares said: first ever US Ethereum ETF applicant said Decryption The company stated that it will continue to work towards getting the petition approved.
Van Eck, a more traditional Wall Street investment firm, continues to go all-in as well.
Matthew Siegel, the company's head of digital asset research, believes the product will be approved “in time.”
But he stressed that Van Eck's experience bringing cryptocurrencies to Wall Street has never been without conflict. This week's news is just another bump in the road on what the company always expected to be a long and winding road.
“This has been a war since January 2022, and it has been a war throughout Biden's term,” he said. “Part of our investment thesis for this asset class is that we continue to win the bigger battles in court over the long term.”
