The CEO of Umoja, Robby Greenfield, has stated that the approval of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may be delayed beyond the final deadline in May. According to Greenfield, large financial institutions are lacking the internal strategy necessary to position themselves for approval. Notable companies competing for an Ether ETF include BlackRock, Grayscale, Fidelity, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, Hashdex, and Franklin Templeton.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart predicts that the current Ether ETF approvals will be declined in late May, as reported on March 19. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on the Hashdex and ARK 21Shares spot Ether ETFs, with the final decision set for late May.
Creating institutional strategies for ETFs is more challenging due to the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies like Ether. While a delay is expected, Greenfield believes that the approvals for Ether ETFs are inevitable.
The SEC has specific deadlines for deciding on various ETF applications. VanEck’s application must be decided by May 23, ARK 21Shares’ by May 24, Hashdex’s by May 30, Grayscale’s by June 18, and Invesco’s by July 5. Fidelity and BlackRock’s applications have deadlines on August 3 and August 7, respectively.
Apart from spot Ether ETFs, large institutional players are still hesitant to invest in decentralized finance (DeFi) due to a lack of infrastructure. This also hinders traditional retail investor participation. Greenfield emphasizes the importance of enabling retail access to smart investment strategies, as individual investors have historically had limited access to wealth management tools compared to institutions.
Umoja has closed a $2 million extension to its initial seed funding round in order to provide wider retail access to asset management strategies. The total amount raised now stands at $4 million.
According to estimates by the World Economic Forum, retail investors accounted for 52% of global assets under management in 2021. This figure is projected to grow to 61% by 2030.