The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened a comment period for proposals for Ethereum Spot ETFs, involving major players such as BlackRock, Grayscale, Fidelity, and Bitwise.
These proposals will undergo a three-week comment period, as announced by the agency, in order to gather feedback from individuals interested in these proposed rule changes.
Perspectives for Ethereum Spot ETFs are Muted
Despite a renewed sense of hope following the SEC’s approval of Bitcoin-based ETFs in January, industry analysts have become less optimistic about a similar approval for products following Ethereum’s ETH.
According to specialist James Seyffart, the SEC’s request for comments does not change the forecasts for a potential approval for Ethereum Spot ETFs.
The SEC was forced to abandon its earlier opposition to Bitcoin applications after a major legal defeat against Grayscale, but Gary Gensler stated that this approval did not extend to other tokens.
A deadline of May 23 has been set by the SEC for making final decisions on some of the ETF applications.
Potential Consequences and Regulatory Delays
The introduction of Bitcoin Spot ETFs has significantly increased institutional crypto investments. A similar outcome could be expected for ETH if the agency were to approve such proposals.
However, investigations are underway to determine whether ETH should be classified as a security, which would place it on a different legal footing than Bitcoin.
