Key Points
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart has offered insights into the potential timeline for the commencement of trading for Spot Ethereum ETFs, should the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approve these funds.
The Approval Process
Seyffart stated in a post on X (previously Twitter) that S-1 approvals are required for the Spot Ethereum ETFs to go live.
This approval could take several weeks to months to come through.
His comments were made in the context of a 75% approval odds for the deadline for the 19b-4 filings, with the final deadline for VanEck’s and Ark 21Shares’ coming up on May 23 and 24, respectively.
Seyffart, along with his colleague Eric Balchunas, anticipate that the SEC will likely approve at least VanEck’s application on or before May 23 as this is the final deadline for the Commission to decide.
Previously, the SEC was expected to reject these applications due to reports that it considered Ethereum a security.
Balchunas, however, indicated in an X post that the Commission had become more open to approving these funds due to an “increasingly political issue.”
The SEC has already demonstrated a willingness to approve these funds, having asked Nasdaq, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to update their filings.
Insiders claim that the SEC’s feedback to these exchanges is a positive sign, indicating that the regulator might be ready to approve these investment funds.
Steven McClurg, the head of US asset management for CoinShares, told Reuters that it could take months for the Ethereum ETFs to start trading as there is no set timeframe for the SEC to approve the registration filings.
The SEC has shown that it can approve both the 19b-4 and S-1 filings simultaneously, as it did with the Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which immediately went live as a result.
The difference now is that the SEC had been in regular communication with the issuers weeks before the Bitcoin ETFs were approved.
Asset managers Fidelity and Grayscale have removed their staking plans in their updated S1-filings.
This was anticipated as the staking feature is a key reason why the SEC is rumored to consider ETH a security.
However, the removal of this staking offering suggests that the SEC will approve these funds as long as ETH staking isn’t included.
Seyffart noted in an X post that their approval odds remain at 75% since the removal of the staking plans was expected.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading around $3,700, up over 3% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
