SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated in an interview with Reuters yesterday that the formal approval of the Ethereum spot ETF depends on the issuer’s response time to the SEC comments, implying that the SEC will not delay the S-1 filing approval process as some people feared.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the 19b-4 rule change documents for 8 Ethereum spot ETFs on May 24, but the official listing is still pending another crucial S-1 registration statement document approved by the SEC.
Industry experts have different opinions on the timing of the Ethereum spot ETF listing. Discus Fish, the founder of Cobo, predicts that it could be as early as mid-June, Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas believes it could be on July 4, and JPMorgan estimates before November.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in the Reuters interview yesterday that the official approval of the Ethereum spot ETF will depend on the issuer’s response time to the SEC comments.
While Gensler did not disclose whether he believes the listing will take weeks or months, his latest statement shifts the approval responsibility to the issuer, indicating that the SEC may not delay the approval of the S-1 filing as some had feared.
Gensler explained to Reuters that the SEC’s approval was influenced by last year’s Grayscale lawsuit, where Grayscale won and successfully convinced a judge that since the SEC had previously approved an ETF linked to Bitcoin futures, it should also approve a spot Bitcoin ETF because Bitcoin futures prices are highly correlated with spot prices. This forced the SEC to approve the Bitcoin spot ETF in January this year and also influenced their view on the Ethereum spot ETF.
Additionally, during an interview with CNBC the day before yesterday, Gensler seemed to have softened his stance on cryptocurrencies. When asked about the possibility of ETFs for other tokens, he did not emphasize, as he had in the past, that “almost all tokens are securities” except for Bitcoin, but instead said these tokens “require appropriate disclosure of information.” Alexander Grieve, the head of government affairs at Paradigm, also noted the shift in Gensler’s position in his statements.
However, Gensler stated in this week’s interview that he still believes the cryptocurrency space is “rife with fraud, scams, and conflicts.”