Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett said on Thursday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started talks with Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers regarding their S-1 registration forms. She cited sources who said there is still “work to do” on those forms.This could be seen as a positive development, but it suggests there might have been a previous delay in communication.
🚨NEW: Hearing that conversations concerning the S-1’s have now started happening between @SECGov staff and issuers with the conclusion being that there’s “work to do” on those.
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) May 22, 2024
In a separate post, Terrett indicated the SEC might approve the 19b-4 filings today, followed by collaboration with issuers on S-1 forms in the coming weeks or months.
Commenting on Terrett’s post, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said with significant effort, S-1 applications for spot Ethereum ETFs could be resolved within a few weeks. However, he noted that the SEC may need additional time to complete the S-1 review process.
“I think that if they work extremely hard it can be done within a couple weeks but there are plenty of examples of this process taking 3+ months historically,” Seyffart suggested.
Most ETF issuers, including major players like Fidelity, Bitwise, Grayscale, VanEck, Ark 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, and Invesco, submitted their amended 19b-4 filings earlier this week. Nasdaq also refiled BlackRock’s proposed Ethereum ETF yesterday.The clock ticks down as the market braces for the SEC’s verdict on spot Ethereum funds.Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas suggests a timeframe of around 4:00 PM ET for the SEC’s announcement on the fate of these ETFs. The decision on spot Bitcoin ETFs previously arrived slightly earlier on the designated date.
My best guess is we hear from the SEC around 4pm tomorrow. For spot btc they dropped it at 3:45pm, some others in past were slightly after 4pm. Anything poss tho https://t.co/MzTOcsmTnJ
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 22, 2024
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price has surged 25% over the past seven days, trading at nearly $3,800 at press time, according to CoinGecko’s data.Experts expect that a potential spot Ethereum ETF approval could trigger a sharp price increase. However, whether Ethereum can replicate Bitcoin’s price action after the spot fund approval remains uncertain.
