Executives from companies that have received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot Bitcoin ETF are pessimistic about the emergence of an Ethereum-based instrument, reports CNBC.
VanEck CEO Jan van Eck anticipates that the agency will deny the launch of the product in May, when the first deadline for a decision arrives.
“The [review] process is such that regulators provide comments on your application, and this happened weeks before the Bitcoin ETF appeared. As for Ethereum now, the number of pings [from the SEC] is decreasing,” he noted.
CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti is monitoring spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds but also rates the chances of product approval this year as low. According to him, it is quite challenging to get the green light from the SEC for a “specific product” with a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm.
He also noted that CoinShares joined the race for a Bitcoin ETF only three months before approval and “managed to qualify at the last minute.” However, the company has not yet applied for an Ethereum-based exchange-traded fund.
Earlier, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas halved the probability of a spot ETH-ETF approval in May—from 70% to 35%. Specialists from market maker GSR also estimated the chances at 20%.
In March, U.S. senators urged the Commission not to approve additional cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, citing the “enormous risks” of these instruments.
JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou remains optimistic, believing that the regulator will eventually approve spot ETFs based on Ethereum.