The SEC Chair will consider Ether ETF S-1 approvals in the summer of 2024
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler has indicated that the regulator could sign final approvals to list and trade the space ether (ETH) exchange within three months.
On June 13 at the Senate Banking Committee, US President Joe Biden, while discussing the 2025 budget requests for the SEC, said that the commission expects to approve S-1 registration statements for asset managers “sometime this summer”. On May 23, the SEC approved 19b-4 filings from eight companies, but the filings require S-1 approval before ETFs can begin trading on U.S. exchanges.
Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee asked Gensler why the commission did not fully approve the Ether ETF, saying the SEC chairman did not prioritize “developing rules of the road for the crypto industry.” Although Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rustin Behm said ether was a commodity in response to Senator Haggerty, Gensler did not directly answer the question but directed to ether ETFs.
“The Ethereum exchange-traded products that were in front of us from stock exchanges — I think there were eight or nine — were all accepted,” Gensler said. “Individual donors are still working through the registration process, which is going smoothly, and I'm guessing sometime this summer…”
Final Ether ETF approval may take weeks.
The SEC chairman said in a June 5 interview that the final position will take some time after Ether ETF approvals get a 19b-4 greenlight. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas suggested a June launch of Ether products on US exchanges, but predicted final SEC approvals on July 4.
“It was July and it's completely speculative,” ETF analyst James Seifert said in a note to Gensler on X. But I was more confident saying that ETH ETFs will launch at some point this summer. That was kind of a given.”
Related: Spot Ether ETFs Approved, But Gary Gensler Doesn't Pick Them – Here's Why
On January 10, the SEC approved 194-B filings for spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs. The investment vehicles began trading on January 11 after the SEC signed an effective S-1 prospectus.
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust was one of the first ETFs to begin trading on the Nasdaq. The SEC signed off on the asset manager's 19b-4 filing — in addition to filings from Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, Ark, Invesco Galaxy and Franklin Templeton — but it's unclear which company will get the first bite at the apple. S-1 Registration Statements Pass.
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