The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States gave the green light to spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on May 23, but the approval process for these ETFs differed slightly from the approval process for spot Bitcoin ETFs in January.
In contrast to spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs, which were approved through a voting process involving a five-member committee that included SEC chief Gary Gensler, spot Ether (ETH) ETFs were approved by the Trading and Markets Division of the SEC.
The SEC approved the 19b-4 filings from prominent firms such as BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, Ark, Invesco Galaxy, and Franklin Templeton. However, the SEC declined to provide further comments beyond the official decision, as stated in the official filing.
While many members of the crypto community were curious about the differences in the approval process for the two crypto ETFs, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart explained that this was a normal occurrence. Seyffart noted that many approvals are typically done in a similar manner, and requiring an official vote for every decision or document would be impractical. However, he also mentioned that it would have been interesting to see where the political lines were drawn.
However, not everyone is convinced by Seyffart’s analysis. One user on X pointed out that a commissioner could challenge the decision within the next 10 days. They also suggested that the delegated authority was used to conceal the votes, as they might be perceived as political.
Another X user attributed the SEC’s decision to various factors, including political pressure, upcoming elections, and the implementation of environmental, social, and governance rules.
Another significant difference between the approval processes for the two crypto ETFs is that all 11 BTC ETFs started trading the day after their approval, as they also received S-1 form clearance. On the other hand, it may take weeks or even months for spot Ether ETFs to debut on exchanges, as the ETF filers have yet to receive SEC registration through the S-1 process.
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