SEC Delays Joint Ethereum ETF Proposal from Invesco, Galaxy Digital

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed a decision on another high-profile spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF).

A Tuesday SEC filing shows that Wall Street’s top regulator has pushed back its decision on approving or denying the jointly proposed product from asset management giant Invesco and crypto company Galaxy Digital.

The two firms filed the application last September.

The investment vehicle, if approved, would allow investors to gain exposure to the second-biggest digital asset, ETH, without the need to buy and store it themselves.

In January, the regulator gave the green light to 10 Bitcoin ETFs now actively trading and have experienced significant inflows.

Analysts like British bank Standard Chartered now think that an ETH ETF will arrive by May. The bank has argued that the investment vehicles were likely to get the approval stamp from the regulator because the SEC has not said ETH is a security.

However, it has cracked down on crypto companies selling unregulated securities.

The SEC regularly punts on giving a decision immediately. It has so far this year delayed a number of spot ETH ETF applications from high-profile firms, including BlackRock and Fidelity.

Traditional investors can get access to the sometimes convoluted world of cryptocurrencies via ETFs because the company running the investment vehicle takes care of storing the digital coins or tokens. Investors then just buy shares that track the price of the asset.

The SEC had repeatedly said no to approving a Bitcoin ETF for the best part of a decade—but in Janary it finally gave the green light to the long-awaited products.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.