U.S. SEC approves Bitwise’s Bitcoin-Ethereum ETF – What’s next?

• U.S. SEC has cleared the first step for Bitwise’s combined BTC and ETH ETF trading. 
• A sign-off on S-1 will effectively allow public trading of the product. 

The U.S. SEC has approved Bitwise’s combined Bitcoin[BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] ETF, clearing the first step needed for the eventual trading.

On the 30th of January, the regulator approved the issuer’s 19b 4 filing (proposed rule change) via the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The combined ETF will initially be able only to redeem and create 10,000 daily shares. Part of the approval order read,

“The Trust will create and redeem Shares from time to time, but only in one or more “creation units,” which will initially consist of at least 10,000 shares.”

Does this mean that combined ETF trading will begin soon?

U.S. SEC to approve trading soon? 

The next step before eventual public trading is for the regulator to sign off on the S-1 form (registration statement). 

According to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, Bitwise’s accelerated approval coincided with its first deadline, following a similar greenlight for Hashdex and Franklin Templeton filings. 

He stated,

“Today was not the final deadline — It was the first deadline but because Hashdex and Franklin were already approved it made sense that this would also be approved in short order.”

Source: Bloomberg

On his part, Eric Balchunas, another Bloomberg ETF analyst, noted that Bitwise’s approval was faster than expected. He said, 

“They approved in 45 days vs waiting 240 days. I really want to interpret this as a sign the new SEC will be faster but no way to know really.”

For Nate Geraci, president of ETF Store, this was a milestone towards a bigger goal – full index-based crypto ETFs almost similar to the S&P Index. He stated, 

“Rapidly heading towards full index-based & actively managed spot crypto ETFs…This is simply first step.”

Note, however, that the previous SEC regime postponed the decision of some crypto index funds, like Grayscale Digital Large Cap and Bitwise 10 Crypto Index, to early February and March, respectively. 

It remains to be seen whether they will receive accelerated approval for their second deadline. 

That said, Seyffart added there were some S-1 movements, indicating that the combined BTC and ETH ETFs could begin trading soon. 

“There was movement with Hashdex yesterday and today. There were updates filed with relation to their S-1 and 19b-4. This indicates to me that these products are likely to list in the very near future”