A race to bring out the first spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) to the United States market has received a major boost. Five leading cryptocurrency asset managers, namely Fidelity, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Galaxy/Invesco, and ARK Invest/21Shares, have made changes to their 19b-4 registration statements with the SEC.
Even more significantly, these firms have excluded certain provisions regarding Ether staking from their documents. This decision conforms with Grayscale’s recent decision to remove staking components from its Ether product.
These changes have increased optimism about the possibility of ETF approval at the SEC; some think that ETFs that do not require staking could provide higher returns on their investments for current Ether holders. Bloomberg analysts have boosted their approvals of a spot Ether ETF from 25% to 75%, on the back of the SEC’s reported move to hasten the filings.
The SEC still has until May 23 to rule on VanEck’s application and many expect the SEC to decide on multiple applicants in a similar fashion to how they collectively rule on spot bitcoin ETFs in January.
Ether’s price has also benefitted from such developments by rising by over 20% to around $3800 from the reported change of heart by the SEC.
As the race goes on, the industry awaits the decision of the SEC which may lead to wider institutional adoption and mainstream awareness of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
