The critical week for Ether ETFs has begun: Approval or rejection

As the cryptocurrency world focuses on the SEC’s Ether spot ETF decisions, the week that has been anticipated for months has arrived. This week, the agency has to approve or reject the applications of ARK Invest and VanEck… This is sure to be decisive for the future decisions of other companies.

The critical week for Ether ETFs has begun: Approval or rejection

After the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made a historic decision to approve Bitcoin spot ETFs on January 10th, the financial world is now focused on Ether spot ETFs. The SEC, which has neither rejected nor approved the applications made so far and postponed all requests, no longer has the right to do so (at least for 2 companies)!

A fateful week for two companies

As of this week, the SEC has to make a final decision on two companies’ Ether spot ETF applications… The agency will make a final decision on the Ether spot ETF applications filed by VanEck on Thursday, May 23 and ARK Invest on Friday, May 24. In addition to these two companies, there are applications from BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton and Grayscale. The deadlines for the final decisions on these applications extend from June to August.

Waiting for a collective decision

Experts and ETF analysts are not as hopeful about Ether spot ETFs as Bitcoin spot ETFs. SEC chairman Gary Gensler’s negative view of cryptocurrencies, the fact that Ether has not been adopted as much as Bitcoin, that it is seen as a security rather than a commodity, and that it does not have as much political support behind it as Bitcoin are important disadvantages… The SEC is expected to continue its recent policy of collective decision-making. In the Bitcoin spot ETF decision on January 10, the SEC did not have to respond to all companies, but it went this way in order not to discriminate between companies and not to give advantages to some. Here, too, although the decision will be made for VanEck and ARK Invest, the institution is expected to give a collective rejection or approval.

The SEC has until August 7 for BlackRock, June 18 for Grayscale, August 3 for Fidelity and May 30 for Brazilian fund manager Hashdex to make a final decision.

What about the staking “problem”?

Last week, ARK Invest removed staking plans from the content of its Ether spot ETF application. It is known that the SEC also considers staking services as a security. This is shown as one of the main reasons for the institution’s negative approach to Ether ETFs.

The SEC’s litigation process with the Coinbase exchange on staking services is also ongoing. Last year, the Kraken exchange also agreed with the SEC and terminated its staking services. Coinbase, on the other hand, insists on this issue.

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