The SEC has now formally approved a number of spot Ethereum ETFs, including the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, the Bitwise Ethereum ETF, the iShares Ethereum Trust, the VanEck Ethereum Trust, the ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF, the Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF, the Fidelity Ethereum Fund, the Franklin Ethereum ETF.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved several spot Ethereum ETFs, marking a significant step in the mainstream adoption and financialization of the crypto sector.
Nasdaq, CBOE, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) had filed applications to list these ETFs, and the SEC had previously requested them to amend these applications. This move hinted at the regulator's impending approval of the investment vehicles.
Now, several spot Ethereum ETFs have been formally approved by the SEC. These include the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, Bitwise Ethereum ETF, iShares Ethereum Trust, VanEck Ethereum Trust, ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF, Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF, Fidelity Ethereum Fund, and Franklin Ethereum ETF.
no staking
However, it's important to note that none of the approved ETFs will allow for staking on the Ethereum network. As a reminder, in Ethereum's Proof-of-Stake transaction authentication mechanism, validators can lock up (stake) specific Ether balances in specialized nodes to win the chance to authenticate a particular batch of transactions and receive the transaction fee as a reward.
This limitation will reduce the yields of spot Ethereum ETFs compared to staking, but it appears to be a necessary opportunity cost to ensure sufficient liquidity for smooth fund operations. This is especially crucial considering Ethereum's standard exit queue, which limits the number of stakers who can exit on a given day.
Today's approval of spot Ethereum ETFs comes amid a broader heating up of crypto regulation on Capitol Hill. On May 22, the US House of Representatives passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which aims to grant digital assets a commodity status under the regulatory oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) if their associated blockchains or digital ledgers are "functional and decentralized." According to the bill, a digital asset is considered sufficiently decentralized if "no person has unilateral authority to control the blockchain or its usage, and no issuer or affiliated person has control of 20% or more of the digital asset or the voting power of the digital asset."
After initially threatening to veto the bill, US President Biden opted to issue a statement highlighting potential issues with the bill. Meanwhile, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who stands to lose a significant portion of his agency's authority over the crypto sphere if FIT21 is enacted, also issued a strongly worded statement, arguing that the bill would create "regulatory gaps and undermine decades of precedent regarding the oversight of investment contracts, putting investors and capital markets at immeasurable risk."
