The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has postponed its decision on requests from 21Shares and VanEck to launch an Ethereum-based spot ETF.
The regulator considered it “appropriate” to delay consideration of the applications to give it sufficient time to study the issue.
For 21Shares, the date was postponed to December 26, and for VanEck – until at least December 25.
On September 6, ARK Invest and 21Shares submitted a proposal to the SEC to launch a joint Ethereum-spot ETF. If approved, the instrument will provide the opportunity to directly assume risk on price fluctuations of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization with the instrument listed on CBOE BZX. VanEck filed a similar request the same day.
Bloomberg senior stock analyst Eric Balchunas noted that while the decision on the Ethereum spot fund remains in limbo, futures instruments for the asset with a “90% probability” will appear in early October.
While the spot remains in limbo, Ether futures ETFs are highly likely (90% odds) to start rolling out in early Oct. Valkyrie first (albeit with a btc + eth ETF) followed by dozen+ straight ether futures ETFs. Gonna be a wild race albeit w/ much lower stakes than spot via @JSeyff pic.twitter.com/no8kP5DTZt
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) September 27, 2023
“It will be a crazy race, although the stakes will be much lower than on the spot,” the expert noted.
He later reported that the SEC had asked affiliated parties to update the documents by the evening of September 29. Balciunas suggested that Ethereum futures of some companies could enter the market as early as the beginning of next week.
In August, ARK Invest and 21Shares submitted a proposal to the Commission for two futures ETFs based on the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization.
Recall that on September 27, the SEC postponed its decision on several applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs from ARK Invest and 21Shares until January 2024. The department also postponed the decision on the exchange-traded fund from the Global X Bitcoin Trust until November 2023.
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