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PARIS — Issuers of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have expressed doubts about the near-term likelihood of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approving such crypto products. ether.
Regulators have a deadline of the end of May to complete their review of the Ethereum ETF. Previously, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed the original deadline for making a decision on the Ethereum ETF application in March.
Company scope includes black stone Fidelity and VanEck, which launched spot Bitcoin ETFs this year, have been awaiting approval for Ethereum products.
Some issuers lack confidence that the SEC will approve Ethereum applications.
VanEck CEO Jan Van Eck said: “We are also the first company in the United States to apply for Ethereum. Me and (Ark Invest CEO) Cathy Wood may be the first to apply in May and may be rejected.” In France told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal at the Paris Blockchain Week crypto event in Paris.
Ark Invest had no immediate comment when contacted by CNBC.
Van Eck added: “The way the legal process works is that regulators will comment on your application, which was happening for weeks before the Bitcoin ETF was launched — and now, in the case of Ethereum, the pin is falling. “
Since the SEC approved the first batch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, the crypto community has been increasingly enthusiastic about Ethereum ETFs. But the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has indicated that it may be reluctant to approve such investment products.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has previously emphasized that in the SEC’s view, “the vast majority of crypto-assets are investment contracts and are therefore subject to federal securities laws.”
This makes the situation for Ethereum ETFs more complicated.
“We are watching the Ethereum decision very, very closely,” CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti told CNBC on Tuesday. “CoinShares didn’t compete for a Bitcoin ETF until three months before approval, and we managed to qualify at the last minute. .”
He is equally pessimistic about the likelihood of such approval in the short term.
“I don’t think there will be any approvals in the second half of the year,” he noted, suggesting that proof-of-stake, a protocol for blockchains, may have a hard time getting SEC approval.
Bitcoin is backed by a different protocol called proof-of-work, where volunteer miners validate transactions and mint new coins.
From a securities law perspective, the SEC has not challenged Proof of Work.
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