The #ETF of #Ethereum should be fully approved in September
The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) told senators at a budget hearing that applications to run ETH Spot ETFs should end this summer.
Gensler told a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee at a hearing to justify the market regulator's budget that the process is "running smoothly" after initial approval of a group of ETFs. The agency had previously granted the initial round of requests, but said final registration requirements (filings known as S-1s) are now being handled at the "staff level."
Once those filings are approved, the new ETFs can be listed, opening up broader markets to easy-to-trade funds containing real ether, much like the previous establishment of bitcoin spot ETFs containing (BTC). The SEC had initially blocked the effort for bitcoin ETFs until a federal court ruled that the agency was mishandling the matter, and Gensler has said the SEC has followed that decision and allowed them.
When asked directly if ETH is a commodity, Gensler did not respond with a yes or no, maintaining the uncertain position his agency has maintained on that asset. At the same hearing, when asked if it was a commodity, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) head Rostin Behnam responded: "Yes."
While Gensler has repeatedly said that the vast majority of digital assets should be considered securities, he declines to identify which ones fit into each basket other than those his agency has listed in enforcement actions.
"While not all cryptocurrencies are cryptographic securities (some are under Chairman Behnam's jurisdiction), those that are are required to disclose them to the public," Gensler said.