The first step is always the hardest.
After years of repetition turn downThe Securities and Exchange Commission finally has it Bitcoin ETFs have approved the first position– Development of earthquakes Analysts say Normally, the rate of integration Bitcoin with the world economy.
This is a historic achievement—finally giving Wall Street retail investors a way to gain direct exposure to Bitcoin without having to deal with cryptocurrency exchanges or wallets. And it might not just be good for Bitcoin.
Experts now believe that the SEC's approval could have opened the door to the approval of other crypto-backed spot ETFs. Ethereum Thanks to the ETF and the precedent set by the Bitcoin ETF, that financial product could hit the market in months, not years.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said he is 70% certain the spot ETH ETF will be approved in May.
How can that be when Bitcoin took years to achieve similar success? In addition, the SEC has repeatedly shown that it is more skeptical Ethereum from Bitcoin?
When it appears Carpet Radio FOMO Hour Late last week, Balchunas said it all comes down to legal strategy. After the SEC approves a Bitcoin Futures ETF In 2021, gray He sued the federal regulatorarguing that it cannot arbitrarily approve a BTC futures ETF and reject a BTC ETF at the same time.
Futures ETFs track the value of futures contracts, which themselves give the buyer the ability to buy or sell Bitcoin at a later date. No Bitcoin is actually bought and sold when futures ETFs are bought and sold. Spot ETFs are diverse, and their issuers—BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, and others—do They actually buy and store Bitcoin on behalf of their clients.
Grayscale has argued in court that it shouldn't change how they're treated by the SEC—And they won. Soon, back in the corner, SEC He changed his tune. Bitcoin ETFs on the spot.
The SEC now seems to be in a similar situation with Ethereum, Balchunas believes that the agency has approved The first Ethereum futures ETFs In October.
“Ipso facto, you have to approve the ether space [ETF]Or they are going to be sued again for the same exact reason,” said the analyst in A Rear radio Appearing at the end of last week.
Other analysts share that optimism. In a report earlier this week, British multinational bank Standard Chartered predicted that the One Place Ethereum ETF could be approved in Q2 of this year.
James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset investment firm CoinShares, agreed.
“Given that the SEC has treated both BTC and ETH very similarly, it is very likely [that approval comes] Q2 this year,” he said. Decrypt.
Bolstering that confidence is the height of applicants already lining up to list an ETH ETF. In November, Wall Street behemoth BlackRock has thrown its weight behind its spot ETH ETF implementation; The asset manager's entry into the space Bitcoin ETF competition last summer was widely considered a A great benefit Prospects for the financial product.
“These … are not small companies,” said Adam Berker, a legal adviser at international payments platform Merkuo. Decrypt. “These requests come from high-profile entities such as BlackRock and Greyscale, both of which have significant influence and strong track records.”
Others still in the crypto industry, however, feel that somewhere an Ethereum ETF has yet to be said and done. William Quigley, co-founder of stablecoin arrestHe believes in insurmountable differences between Smart contract– Less Bitcoin, and complex, multilayer Ethereum ecosystem It can easily affect the process.
““It is difficult to predict the timing of the Ethereum ETF because it is a more complex technology platform than the Bitcoin blockchain, so it presents more potential risks from the SEC's perspective,” Keighley said. Decrypt.
That vast technical difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum cuts both ways, though. Never place Ethereum ETF is it. Finally approved, Quigley believes, the product will be extremely attractive to Wall Street investors eager to tap into the vast and incredibly active Ethereum ecosystem.
“If Bitcoin is a lemonade stand, Ethereum is a money center bank,” Quigley said. “Ethereum is more complex, with tens of thousands of active smart contracts and much more dynamic than the Layer 2 blockchains that use it – and [Ethereum-based] Tokens dominate the token business ecosystem,” he said.
What Does Ethereum ETF Appetite Mean for Wall Street? “It's easy to see that institutional interest is going to be strong,” Quigley said.
