What Still Needs to Happen Before Spot Ether ETFs Can Trade

Spot ether exchange-traded funds may begin trading as soon as this Friday or in a few weeks. There's a lot of excitement over the possibility that a spot ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) may be around the corner. Here's what still needs to happen before one may launch.

A handful of would-be issuers filed amended S-1 forms on Friday and Monday, suggesting progress is being made. Notably, the filings did not contain fee information, so there's likely to be at least one more round of comments from SEC staff before trading can begin. Invesco and Galaxy published a fee – 0.25% – on Tuesday. VanEck was the only would-be issuer to publish a fee prior to the latest round of updates.

To be clear, there's no firm timeline for approval. Unlike the 19b-4 filings the SEC approved in May, there's no imminent final deadline the agency must meet for a final decision, and so the back-and-forth between regulators and issuers could wrap up as soon as Friday or take a few weeks still. One individual familiar with the process told CoinDesk they expected the dialogue to continue for a few weeks.

The filings also do not detail expense ratios. If amended filings include those key details, that may signal they are the final set of amendments.

Should the SEC provide feedback by the end of the day Tuesday, it's entirely plausible the issuers will file a final set of amended forms by Wednesday. They would have to include fee information and any other details required by the regulator. For the spot bitcoin ETFs, it took the SEC two days to send out the final approvals after issuers had submitted fees. If that holds this time round, provided issuers submit their fees by Wednesday, it is possible that an approval could be in by Friday.

The products could begin trading relatively quickly afterward.

Hours before the spot bitcoin ETFs were approved by the SEC in January, one of the listing exchanges, Cboe, added the funds to its “New Listings” page, saying that was “standard procedure” before the approval of a new ETF. If so, given that five of the potential ether ETFs will be listed on Cboe, we may well see a similar situation happening on the day that these ETFs receive approval.