Spot Ether ETF approvals will ‘take some time’ — Gary Gensler

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has suggested that there might be a delay over final approvals for asset managers offering spot Ether ( ETH ) exchange-traded funds on exchanges.

In a June 5 interview on CNBC, Gensler said the next steps on the SEC’s approval of spot Ether ETFs will “take some time,” hinting at the commission delaying or moving slowly on signing off on S-1 registration statements. On May 23, the SEC gave the green light to 19b-4 filings from VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, and Bitwise. However, final approvals that would allow the listing and trading of ETFs on U.S. exchanges could take months.

The SEC chair added in the interview that cryptocurrency firms were engaging in activities laws didn’t allow traditional exchanges to do, suggesting that the commission’s position on enforcement actions was unlikely to change under Gensler. The financial regulator has filed lawsuits against Ripple, Coinbase, Binance and Kraken. However, it has also been forced to close one of its regional offices after a Utah judge ordered the SEC to pay $1.8 million over “bad faith conduct” in court.

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While Gensler suggested that the SEC might slow the spot Ether ETF approval process, the commission has already gotten the ball rolling for eventually listing shares on exchanges. The spot Ether ETF 19b-4 approvals came five months after the SEC approved several spot Bitcoin ( BTC ) ETF applications, marking an industry first. Before the SEC chair’s comments, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas predicted a July 4 launch date for spot Ether ETFs.

Unlike with spot Bitcoin ETFs, the five commissioners did not vote to approve spot Ether ETFs , which were greenlighted by the SEC’s Trading and Markets Division. Gensler is expected to serve as SEC chair until 2026. SEC commissioner Caroline Crenshaw’s term officially ended on June 5, but at the time of publication, U.S. President Joe Biden had not yet announced whether he intends to nominate a replacement or have her remain.

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