Ethereum
Ethereum ETFs Expected to Launch This Summer, Says SEC’s Gensler
S-1 registration forms for several spots Ethereum ETF nominees will likely be approved this summer, according to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler.
This comes after the agency approved 19b-4 requests from exchanges to list such products in late May. All that remains is to obtain regulatory agreement on the requests from individual issuers, after which a spot Ethereum The ETF can immediately go live in the United States.
“Individual issuers are still going through the registration process. It works well,” Gensler said during a Senate hearing THURSDAY. “I imagine that over the course of this summer they will be [approved].”
Gensler pointed out that Ethereum futures ETFs had already gone live last summer and CME Ether futures had already been around for years.
Although there has been very little demand for these futures ETFs, many analysts, including Search K33— expect spot products to absorb up to $4 billion in their first five months, or 20 to 30% of flows to their Bitcoin-based counterparts.
The president’s projected timeline mirrors that of ETF experts at Bloomberg, who said it would likely be “weeks” to “months” before S-1 filings get the green light after the president’s decision . 19b-4 approvals. Regardless, getting these funds to the United States was a question of “if,” not “when.”
Despite his confirmation, Gensler still did not directly answer whether Ethereum is classified as a security or a commodity when asked directly. Legal experts argue that Ethereum has implicitly considered a commodity already by being approved as a single asset ETF product.
The president also expressed concern over a stipulation recently included in the agency’s fiscal 2025 funding bill by the House Appropriations Committee. The stipulation requires that “none of the funds made available… may be used to carry out any enforcement action related to a digital asset transaction,” except in cases of fraud or market manipulation.
“It would seriously harm our efforts,” Gensler said. “While not all cryptos are cryptographic securities…those that are have an obligation to disclose full, fair and complete information to the public. We would lose that.
Edited by Andrew Hayward