Financial giant BlackRock late Wednesday amended its SEC filing regarding its proposed spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). The May 29 update to the iShares Ethereum Trust marks the first concrete sign of progress toward market availability of an ETH-based ETF since the shock approval of the new financial product last week.
“This is almost certainly the initiative we've been waiting for,” Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seifert said on Twitter. “Issuers and the SEC are working towards launching a spot Ethereum ETF.”
Colleague Eric Balchunas agreed that this was a “good sign” and noted that other applicants would likely follow suit. If the SEC quickly issues “one more fine-tuning comment,” he said, a spot Ethereum ETF could debut next month.
“A release at the end of June is a legitimate possibility, [although] “Over/Under date remains July 4th,” Balciunas tweeted.
BlackRock's proposed fund would trade under the ticker symbol ETHA, and the company made it clear that it would not allocate any of its Ethereum holdings for staking, meaning potential returns from the ETF “will differ from returns that can be derived from buying and holding.” [Ethereum] Directly. “
BlackRock first filed its S-1 form for its product with the SEC in November, following similar proposals from ARK Invest, Fidelity and VanEck. Crypto custodian Grayscale is also looking to convert its Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) into a spot Ethereum ETF, a similar conversion that reportedly paved the way for a spot Bitcoin ETF that was approved in January, leading to a surge in BTC prices and bullish sentiment across the crypto sector.
With the physical Bitcoin ETF now holding more than 1 million Bitcoin, hopes are growing that a fund based on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap will similarly boost the market.
Following the approval of the Bitcoin ETF, attention quickly turned to Ethereum, but the outlook for an equivalent ETH-based ETF seemed bleak in the coming months, until another report two weeks ago suggested the SEC was preparing to approve them after all, brightening the mood considerably.
The SEC's green light is seen by many as part of a broader shift in U.S. crypto policy, a crucial development as the digital asset industry becomes a more prominent factor in election year politics.
