On December 18, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed its final decision on exchange-traded funds based on Ethereum for several firms.
First the agency delayed filings for the Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF and the Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF.
According to the documents, the SEC “has opened an investigation” that entails gathering additional information from the public about the listing of investment products.
The agency also delayed the decision on the spot Ethereum ETF from VanEck and a similar joint instrument ARK Invest and 21Shares.
According to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, the Commission’s decision was “expected”. The deadline for this matter is now set for May 2024.
Update: There it is. Delay order for @ARKInvest and @21Shares on their spot #Ethereum ETF filing. Expected and was due by December 26th. Final date for these are in late May. https://t.co/Zs6Zsd4uKj pic.twitter.com/9u0nNiPD9O
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) December 18, 2023
“Perhaps it’s simply a backlog clearance ahead of the holidays,” the expert said.
In the past 24 hours, the second-largest cryptocurrency rose by 3.6%, according to CoinGecko. At the time of writing its price was $2,250.
Earlier the SEC moved the decision to January 1, 2024 on Hashdex’s bid to launch a spot Ethereum ETF and futures tied to the second-largest cryptocurrency.
In November, BlackRock filed with the regulator to register a spot Ethereum ETF.
In the same month, CoinGecko analysts noted growing interest from asset managers in Ethereum.
Later, Geoffrey Kendrick, head of research at Standard Chartered, predicted the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency to reach $8,000 by the end of 2026.