The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set a deadline in May this year for the final decision on multiple applications for Ethereum spot ETFs. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart expressed optimism on the 4th that Ethereum spot ETFs are expected to be approved and listed within this year. The reason is that when the SEC approved Ethereum futures ETF last year, it implicitly recognized Ethereum as a commodity.
According to a report from Cointelegraph, during a private online seminar hosted by CryptoQuant on January 4th, James Seyffart, the ETF analyst at Bloomberg, stated that when the SEC approved Ethereum futures ETF last year, it “implicitly” accepted Ethereum as a commodity. This means that there may be Ethereum spot ETFs listed this year.
The first batch of Ethereum futures ETFs in the United States was approved and listed in October last year. Nine Ethereum-related futures ETFs from fund companies such as Valkyrie, ProShares, VanEck, Bitwise, Kelly, and Volshares were launched on the Chicago Options Exchange. James Seyffart pointed out that the SEC did not question the classification of Ethereum at that time. Securities and commodity ETFs face different legal requirements, different tax burdens, and different regulatory burdens. Therefore, how to classify them is important. James Seyffart believes that the SEC may not have enough room to question the classification of Ethereum. If the SEC treats Ethereum as a security, it may be sued and forced to cancel the listing of Ethereum futures ETFs.
James Seyffart pointed out that the SEC recently lost a similar lawsuit. In 2020, the SEC excluded the stock volatility index SPIKES Index from the definition of “securities futures” and identified it as “futures.” However, this decision was overturned by the court in July last year, and the court called the SEC’s order arbitrary and capricious.
It is expected that there will be results for Ethereum spot ETFs in May. Seven institutions, including BlackRock, submitted applications to the SEC for Ethereum spot ETFs last year. Currently, the final approval deadline for VanEck, ARK 21Shares, and Hashdex Ethereum spot ETFs is in May 2024, while other applications will be decided in the coming months.
However, before that, the SEC must decide whether to approve Bitcoin spot ETFs. Currently, the market is eagerly awaiting whether the SEC will approve Bitcoin spot ETFs before the deadline on January 10th. According to a report by Fox News yesterday, the SEC may approve the ETF as early as Friday, and trading will officially begin next week.