The SEC was inundated with applications for futures ETFs on Ethereum
Date: 2023-08-06 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: BLOCKCHAIN, CRYPTO PAYMENTS
Market experts believe that asset managers treat filing for cryptocurrency ETFs as a gamble.
As of August 3, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has received a total of 12 applications to create Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds.
Over the past few days, the SEC has been bombarded with real filings. Following Volatility Shares, which filed a petition at the end of July, VanEck, Roundhill, ProShares and Grayscale applied to the regulator. Last on the list is Bitwise, the firm plans to launch equally-weighted and market-weighted versions of its bitcoin and ETH futures ETFs.
Bloomberg Intelligence financial expert James Seyffart reported that ProShares has filed four Ethereum-ETF filings with the SEC. Information on the regulator's website shows that Bitwise submitted three applications, while Grayscale submitted two. Roundhill, VanEck and Volatility Shares each submitted one application.
A new name has also appeared on the list of candidates: Direxion wants to launch a dual futures ETF on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Will her SEC approve applications for Ethereum-ETFs
Some market experts believe that the filings represent a gamble on the part of asset managers who do not want to miss the opportunity to become the first exchange-traded fund on Ethereum in the United States. However, the likelihood of obtaining approval is low, since the SEC has never given a green light to Ethereum futures-ETFs.
In addition, Commission Chairman Gary Gensler consistently refuses to answer the question of whether the Commission considers Ethereum a security. This increases the uncertainty regarding the regulation of the asset.
The wave of applications for an Ethereum futures ETF followed the applications for spot bitcoin ETFs that were filed with the SEC by numerous traditional financial institutions.
Bloomberg analysts Eric Balciunas and James Seyffart believe that the probability of approval of applications is about 65%. In their opinion, the key factor that will affect the outcome of the situation is the outcome of Grayscale v. SEC.
