Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
-
The US SEC has delayed its decision on whether to approve Grayscale’s Ethereum futures ETF.
-
The regulator will now make its decision on May 30th, 2024.
Grayscale’s Ether Futures ETF Proposal Postponed Again
According to a recent filing, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again postponed its decision on whether to approve the proposed Grayscale Ethereum Futures Trust exchange-traded fund (ETF).
According to the filing on Friday, the regulatory agency said it would need until May 30, 2024, to decide whether to approve Grayscale's ether futures ETF. The SEC added that
"The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change and the issues raised therein."
This is not the first time the SEC has delayed its decision on Grayscale's ether futures ETF. The regulator most recently delayed its decision in December when it asked for public comments.
This comes despite the SEC previously approving some ether futures ETFs in October 2023, including from ProShares, VanEck and Bitwise.
Crypto Industry Shifts Focus to Spot Ether ETF
The SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. However, the market has since shifted its attention to spot Ether ETFs. These ETFs, if approved, would give investors exposure to the cryptocurrency without needing to purchase or hold the asset directly.
BlackRock and Fidelity lead the charge as they have already applied for spot Ether ETFs in the last few months. Market experts remain optimistic that the SEC would approve such products. However, the major point of discussion remains when the SEC would approve them.
Analysts previously predicted that the SEC would approve a spot Ether ETF by May. however, Bloomberg ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas, recently dropped his estimate of the chances of a spot Ethereum ETF approval by May from about 70% to 30%.
Ether remains the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and is currently trading at $3,443, up by more than 3% in the last 24 hours.
