Proposal for Grayscale's Ethereum Futures Trust ETF has been withdrawn

A proposal to list and trade shares of Grayscale's ether futures exchange-traded fund has been withdrawn, according to a new document filed on Tuesday.

The application for the Grayscale Ethereum ETH -0.96% Futures Trust ETF, which was filed by NYSE Arca, Inc., in September last year, was withdrawn on May 3, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

"On May 3, 2024, the Exchange withdrew the proposed rule change (File No. SRNYSEARCA-2023-63)," according to that filing .

It is unclear why the proposal was withdrawn. NYSE Arca declined to comment. Grayscale did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The SEC has previously delayed considering Grayscale's ether futures ETF, the most recent being in March . Yet the SEC previously greenlit a batch of ether futures ETFs in October 2023, including from ProShares, VanEck and Bitwise.

Delays for spot products

The SEC has delayed making a decision on spot Ethereum ETFs, including one from Grayscale, over the past few weeks. The most recent delay was on Monday , pushing back the timeline for the Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF to July 5.

Optimism for the SEC approving such a product has dwindled over the past few months. For example, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has lowered his estimate of the chances of a spot Ethereum ETF approval by late May from about 70% to 25%.