SEC Punts on Yet Another Spot Ethereum ETF

Wall Street’s top regulator has refused to give a decision on another high-profile spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Today, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows that the body will push back its decision on approving or denying Grayscale’s application to turn its Ethereum (ETH) Trust into an ETF.

Digital currency asset management firm Grayscale in October filed a a 19b-4 with the SEC to make the conversion. If approved, the Ethereum Trust’s shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and will be directly redeemable for the underlying ETH.

The SEC regularly pushes back decision deadlines. Yesterday, it delayed its decision on fund manager BlackRock’s spot ETH ETF.

And last week, the regulator did the same for Fidelity’s proposed spot Ethereum ETF.

Such ETFs would allow investors to gain exposure to the second-biggest digital asset without the need to buy and store it themselves. The SEC said yes to 10 Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs on January 10. The investment vehicles then started trading the next day.

Grayscale is a prominent crypto fund manager that holds large amounts of BTC and ETH.

Last August, Grayscale won a battle against the SEC when a United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit sided with the firm over the regulator. Grayscale had been trying to turn its BTC Trust into an ETF—only to repeatedly receive denials from the SEC. But a judge said that the denials from the regulator were unlawful.

The recent spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in the United States have renewed optimism that the SEC will do the same for spot Ethereum ETFs.

“We believe this is just the beginning,” said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink earlier this month following the Bitcoin approvals. “I see value in having an Ethereum ETF.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward