During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on June 13, United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler hinted to lawmakers that the final approvals for listing and trading shares of spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could be granted within three months.
Gensler, while discussing U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget requests for the SEC, expressed his expectation that the commission would approve S-1 registration statements for asset managers “sometime over the course of this summer.” Although the SEC had already approved 19b-4 filings from eight companies on May 23, the ETFs could not begin trading on U.S. exchanges until the S-1 approvals were in place.
Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee questioned Gensler during the hearing about the delay in approving Ether ETFs, suggesting that the SEC was not focusing on establishing a clear regulatory framework for the crypto industry. While Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behmam described Ether as a commodity in response to Senator Hagerty, Gensler shifted the conversation towards Ether ETFs without directly addressing the question.
Gensler mentioned that the Ethereum exchange-traded product filings from various stock exchanges had all been jointly approved, and individual issuers were currently navigating the registration process smoothly. He anticipated that the final approvals for Ether ETFs could come sometime during the summer.
In a separate interview on June 5, Gensler acknowledged that final approvals for spot Ether ETFs would take some time following the greenlighting of 19b-4 filings. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas suggested that launching Ether products on U.S. exchanges in June was a possibility, with final SEC approvals potentially expected by July 4.
ETF analyst James Seyffart expressed confidence in the launch of ETH ETFs at some point during the summer, despite the uncertainty surrounding the exact timeline. The SEC’s previous approval of spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF filings on Jan. 10 resulted in the investment vehicles commencing trading on Jan. 11, with companies like BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust being among the first to enter the market.
While the SEC has approved 19b-4 filings from various asset managers, including Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, and others, the company that will be the first to debut Ether ETFs remains unknown until the S-1 registration statements are finalized. As the SEC faces legal battles from the crypto industry, the approval process for spot Ether ETFs continues to unfold.