During his interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on February 14, Gary Gensler, Chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), remained tight-lipped about spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). When asked about the possibility of a decision and its timing, Gensler simply stated that the process would follow the same procedure as Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs, providing no information on the current status or a potential timeline.
The SEC previously postponed its decision on the Invesco Galaxy Ether ETF on February 6, as well as Invesco’s ETF application in December. The regulatory agency has also delayed decisions on other Ether ETF applications, including those from Grayscale, Fidelity, and BlackRock, the largest asset management firm in the world. VanEck and Hashdex are among the other companies seeking ETF approvals.
Franklin Templeton, one of the latest Wall Street firms, filed an S1 document for a spot Ether ETF on February 12. The $1.5-trillion asset management giant expressed its intention to stake a portion of the ETF’s ETH to generate additional passive income, similar to ARK 21Shares’ revised filing.
The SEC must make a decision on VanEck’s application 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 must be decided by August 3 and August 7, respectively. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart predicts that all outstanding Ether ETF applications will be decided simultaneously by May 23, following a similar pattern to the SEC’s approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10.
However, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas recently lowered the chances of a spot Ether ETF approval in 2024 from 70% to 60%, as stated in a January 31 X post. On the topic of Bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accumulated 105,280 BTC under management on February 13, becoming the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States to surpass the 100,000-BTC mark.