Michael Saylor, the executive chair of MicroStrategy, has made a prediction that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will reject the listing and trading of spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Saylor made this statement during MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin For Corporations conference on May 1. He believes that the SEC will categorize ETH as a crypto asset security within its regulatory scope, rather than recognizing it as a commodity under the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Additionally, Saylor suggested that other tokens such as BNB, SOL, XRP, and ADA could also be considered as “crypto asset securities” that are unregistered. He stated that none of these tokens will be accepted by Wall Street or mainstream institutional investors as crypto assets.
Saylor’s remarks come at a time when experts are expressing concerns about whether the SEC will approve the listing and trading of spot Ether ETFs on U.S. exchanges. The deadlines for ETF applications from VanEck and ARK Invest are quickly approaching on May 23 and May 24, respectively.
According to unredacted portions of a lawsuit filed by Consensys, it has been alleged that the SEC initiated an investigation into Ether as a security as early as March 2023. In an April 2023 hearing, SEC Chair Gary Gensler avoided directly answering questions about whether Ether was considered a security, despite previous statements suggesting otherwise.
Saylor is a strong advocate for Bitcoin (BTC) and has played a significant role in MicroStrategy’s acquisition of the cryptocurrency as a reserve asset. As of April 30, the company held 214,400 BTC, valued at over $13 billion.