The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set a final deadline for the decision on several Ethereum spot ETF applications in May this year. James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, expressed optimism on May 4th that Ethereum spot ETFs are expected to be approved and listed this year. The reason is that when the SEC approved Ethereum futures ETF last year, it implicitly recognized Ethereum as a commodity.
According to a report by Cointelegraph, during a CryptoQuant private webinar held on January 4th, James Seyffart, the ETF analyst at Bloomberg, stated that when the SEC approved Ethereum futures ETF last year, it had “implicitly” accepted Ethereum as a commodity. This suggests that Ethereum spot ETFs are expected to be listed this year.
The first batch of Ethereum futures ETFs in the United States was approved and listed in October last year. Nine Ethereum-related futures ETFs from various fund companies including Valkyrie, ProShares, VanEck, Bitwise, Kelly, and Volshares were launched on the Chicago Options Exchange. James Seyffart pointed out that the SEC did not question the classification of Ethereum at that time. Securities and commodity ETFs face different legal requirements, different taxation, and regulatory burdens. Therefore, how to classify them is important. James Seyffart believes that the SEC may not have enough room to question the classification of Ethereum. If the SEC regards Ethereum as a security, it may be sued and have to cancel the listing of Ethereum futures ETFs.
James Seyffart pointed out that the SEC recently lost a similar lawsuit. In 2020, the SEC excluded the stock volatility index SPIKES Index from the definition of “security futures” and identified it as “futures.” However, this decision was overturned by the court in July last year, which called the SEC’s order arbitrary and capricious.
It is expected that the Ethereum spot ETF will have a result in May. Seven institutions including BlackRock submitted applications for Ethereum spot ETF to the SEC last year. Currently, the final approval deadline for VanEck, ARK 21Shares, and Hashdex Ethereum spot ETFs by the SEC is May 2024, while other applications will be decided in the coming months.
However, before that, the SEC must decide whether to approve Bitcoin spot ETF. Currently, the market is eagerly awaiting whether the SEC will approve the Bitcoin spot ETF before the deadline on January 10th. According to a report by Fox News yesterday, the SEC may approve the ETF as early as Friday, and it will officially start trading next week.