•Blackrock CEO Larry Fink said he "sees value" in the ETF in a recent interview.
•Blackrock, Fidelity, VanEck and others have already applied for Ethereum ETFs, with some final decision deadlines set for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May.
•Instant ETF approval for Ethereum could be more problematic than was the case with Bitcoin, as there is a possibility that the underlying crypto asset of Ethereum could be classified as a security.
•Blackrock ( BLK ) CEO Larry Fink may have generated momentum for his Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). However, approval of such a product would likely face a significant regulatory hurdle
•“I see value in owning an ETF,” Fink said in an interview with CNBC on Friday morning, just one day after the first bitcoin ETFs began trading in the United States. “And as I said, this is just a stepping stone to tokenization.
•Why are Fink's comments important for the ETH ETF?
•Blackrock originally changed the way people thought about whether creating a spot bitcoin ETF would be possible when the financial giant filed for its own offering in June 2023. They now have their own Ethereum ETF proposal as well. Many of the same other financial institutions, such as Ark and Fidelity, that saw the launch of spot Bitcoin ETF products on Thursday, have also filed for spot Ether ETFs with the SEC.
•VanEck is first in line for potential approval for its spot ETF product, with the SEC's deadline for a decision set for May 23.
•While Ethereum is often lumped in with Bitcoin ( BTCUSD ) as the two main cryptocurrency projects, there are concerns that ETF approval of Ether may be a more complex proposition. Much of the uncertainty surrounding such a financial product is related to the potential classification of Ethereum (ETHUSD ), the underlying crypto-asset of the Ethereum ecosystem, as a security.
•When asked whether approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF could open the door to approvals of other crypto asset ETFs, such as an Ethereum spot ETF, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said: “I look at what we did this week where It is limited to one person who is not a trader.” Security, a commodity called Bitcoin
•However, Brown Rudnick partner Preston Byrne says there may not be as many regulatory barriers to immediate ETF approval. “So far, the only US regulator confirming that Ethereum is a security in enforcement proceedings is the NYAG’s office,” Byrne told Investopedia. “Ethereum's potential status as an unregistered security is a minority view, especially given the fact that the Ethereum Foundation's 2014 sale of Ethereum has now passed the statute of limitations. I expect diligent lawyers address this point in required legal disclosures to investors, but we wouldn't expect more From regulatory intervention after that.
•Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, pegged the odds of Ethereum ETFs getting immediate approval by May at 70%.
•Notably, futures-based Ether ETF products are already available for trading in the US market. However, these offers did not gain much attention and were originally launched without much interest from traders.
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