During a recent Senate Banking Committee meeting, Gary Gensler, the Chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, hinted that the final approvals for listing and trading spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could be granted within the next three months.
In discussions regarding U.S. President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget requests for the SEC, Gensler expressed his anticipation for the commission to approve S-1 registration statements for asset managers sometime during the summer. The SEC had previously approved 19b-4 filings from eight companies on May 23, but the ETFs still required S-1 approvals before they could trade on U.S. exchanges.
When questioned by Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty about the delay in approving Ether ETFs, Gensler did not directly respond but instead focused on the Ether ETF applications that were in progress. He mentioned that all the exchange-traded product filings for Ethereum had been jointly approved and that individual issuers were currently in the process of completing the registration smoothly. Gensler indicated that the final approval for Ether ETFs could potentially happen over the summer.
Gensler also mentioned in a recent interview that final approvals for spot Ether ETFs could take some time following the greenlighting of 19b-4 filings. Analysts have speculated that the Ether products could launch on U.S. exchanges as early as June, with final SEC approvals expected by July 4.
On a related note, the SEC had previously approved 194-b filings for spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs on Jan. 10, with the investment vehicles commencing trading the following day after the effective S-1 prospectuses were signed off. While various companies like BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, and others have received approval for their ETF filings, it remains unclear which company will be the first to launch once the S-1 registration statements are finalized.
In the world of crypto, the SEC is facing a tough battle against legal challenges, akin to the clash between Godzilla and Kong.