SEC Approves Options on Spot Ethereum ETFs

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has authorized the listing and trading of options on spot ETFs based on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization from BlackRock, Bitwise, and Grayscale.

In September, the regulator made a similar decision regarding derivatives based on BTC-ETF. Less than two months later, open interest in IBIT derivatives reached half the level on Deribit.

Trading of exchange-traded funds based on Ethereum commenced in late July.

Since then, the AUM in these instruments amounted to $2.34 billion.

The leaders were ETHE from Grayscale ($1.97 billion) and ETHA from BlackRock ($1.93 billion).

In August 2024, the New York Stock Exchange approached the SEC with a proposal to amend rules that would allow it to list options based on spot Ethereum ETFs from Bitwise and Grayscale.

In November, the agency postponed consideration of the application.

In January 2025, the CBOE on behalf of ARK Invest and 21Shares submitted a proposal to change the structure of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs to allow for the redemption of assets in kind.

In February, the SEC accepted for review an application from NYSE Arca to include Ethereum staking in the ETF from Grayscale. In the same month, the Chicago Board Options Exchange submitted a similar application to the agency for a product from 21Shares.

In January, ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin noted that issuers of spot Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. are anticipating “imminent” approval of staking by the Commission.