Prospects for Ethereum ETFs Look Gloomy, Bitcoin ETFs Resilient
A recent SEC filing extends the review period for Invesco's Ethereum Galaxy ETF application by an additional 60 days. As a result, this moved the next decision deadline to July 5.
“The Commission believes that it is appropriate to establish a longer period for issuing decisions of approval or disapproval of proposed rule changes so as to have sufficient time to consider the proposed rule changes and the issues raised therein.”
US Securities and Exchange Commission
Interestingly, this delay follows previous patterns. Because, the SEC also postponed a decision on similar applications from financial giants such as BlackRock and Fidelity in March. Unsurprisingly, the continuation of this delay has sparked doubts throughout the crypto sector. For example, prominent figures such as Jan van Eck as CEO of VanEck have expressed skepticism about the chances of approval in the near future.
Plus, analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg Intelligence even dramatically lowered the approval probability to less than 35%. Additionally, Head of ETF Analysis at VettaFi Todd Rosenbluth believes that approval will likely be delayed “until 2024 or longer.” He attributed this kind of delay to a regulatory environment that remains opaque.
In line with Rosenbulth's predictions, MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor predicts that the SEC will probably classify Ethereum as a security. As a result, the commission may reject spot Ethereum ETF applications from several asset managers, including BlackRock. Nevertheless, the market is still very enthusiastic about waiting for the SEC's response regarding the application for an Ethereum spot ETF from VanEck and ARK on May 23 and 24.
