The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially approved the 19b-4 documents (Exchange Rule Changes) of eight Ethereum spot ETF applications, including BlackRock, Fidelity, etc., in the early morning of the 24th.
Taking an important step for the listing of Ethereum spot ETC, industry experts believe that the SEC's move is like "implicitly admitting" that Ethereum is not a security, and it is expected to spread to other tokens.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said on the Bankless Podcast:
These Ethereum spot ETFs are commodity-based stock trusts, so the SEC made it clear that they will not pursue Ethereum as a security by approving these applications.
Digital asset lawyer Justin Browder believes that if the Ethereum spot ETF is approved by S-1 (registration statement) next, then "the debate is over: Ethereum is not a security." Adam Cochran, partner of venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, went further and said that the idea that Ethereum is not a security will be extended to other tokens.
ETH is a commodity, although it has some characteristics, which means that we can infer which elements in other projects play an important role in securities. Today, many tokens may have clearly become commodities, even though the projects themselves don't know it yet.
The SEC may still continue to pursue those who pledge ETH, but James Seyffart and others still believe that the SEC may continue to pursue those involved in pledging ETH. The SEC will not determine that ETH is a security, but it will determine that the pledged ETH may be a security. Digital asset lawyer Joe Carlasare agrees with this view, saying:
Even if the ETF is launched, the SEC can pursue individual participants and regard staking as a service. I think other actions are less likely.
In April this year, Consensys, the parent company of the fox wallet Metamask, received a Wells Notice from the SEC. The SEC intends to take enforcement action against the MetaMask wallet for violating securities laws, and the notice is mainly concerned with Metamask's trading and staking services.
Financial lawyer Scott Johnsson pointed out that the SEC did not confirm the non-security status of Ethereum in its approval order. He believes that the SEC "completely avoided" this issue, but the SEC and its commissioners are expected to make a formal statement on this at the appropriate time.
