以太坊 ETF 获得美国监管机构批准，这是加密行业的里程碑

（彭博社）——美国监管机构批准了第一只直接投资全球第二大加密货币以太币的美国交易所交易基金

(Bloomberg) -- Eight issuers including BlackRock Inc., Invesco Ltd. and Fidelity Investments were among those receiving the green light from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of them were players during the debut of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January.

（彭博社）——贝莱德 (BlackRock Inc.)、景顺 (Invesco Ltd.) 和富达投资 (Fidelity Investments) 等八家发行人获得了美国证券交易委员会的批准。他们中的许多人都是一月份比特币现货 ETF 首次亮相时的参与者。

While crypto faithfuls have celebrated the milestone, many are not expecting blockbuster flows similar to that cohort of Bitcoin funds. Citigroup strategists in a note estimated that the Ether funds as a group could see inflows between $4.7 billion to $5.4 billion in the six months after they debut. By contrast, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF crossed the $1 billion threshold by itself less than a week into trading.

尽管加密货币忠实拥护者庆祝了这一里程碑，但许多人并不期待与比特币基金类似的巨额资金流。花旗集团策略师在一份报告中估计，以太坊基金作为一个整体，在推出后的六个月内可能会出现 47 亿至 54 亿美元的资金流入。相比之下，贝莱德的比特币 ETF 交易不到一周就突破了 10 亿美元的门槛。

Here’s a quick guide to the approval and what it means for the digital-asset industry:

以下是有关批准及其对数字资产行业意味着什么的快速指南：

What is Ether?

什么是以太币？

Ether is the native token of Ethereum, the most commercially used blockchain, the decentralized ledgers that record transactions and provide proof of ownership that is the crypto world’s main innovation. Investors can earn passive income by temporarily making their tokens available to the Ethereum network to use in helping validate transactions, a process called staking. For technical reasons, taking that payout can be much simpler when staking through an ETF than directly.

以太币是以太坊的原生代币，以太坊是最商业化使用的区块链，是记录交易并提供所有权证明的去中心化账本，这是加密世界的主要创新。投资者可以通过暂时将其代币提供给以太坊网络来帮助验证交易来赚取被动收入，这一过程称为“质押”。出于技术原因，通过 ETF 进行抵押比直接抵押要简单得多。

What led to the approval?

是什么导致了批准？

The approval of spot Ether ETFs highlights a softening in the US regulatory climate for the digital-asset sector. A watershed legal victory for the industry last year has helped pave the way for the products.

现货以太坊 ETF 的批准凸显了美国数字资产行业监管环境的软化。去年该行业取得的具有里程碑意义的法律胜利为这些产品铺平了道路。

The decision also offers more clarity on the status of Ether in the eyes of the SEC. Until now, the agency had often moved to block crypto’s expansion on the ground that many offerings constituted a security, meaning they should be regulated the way stocks and bonds and many other tradable assets are.

该决定还使 SEC 眼中的以太币地位更加清晰。到目前为止，该机构经常采取行动阻止加密货币的扩张，理由是许多产品构成了证券，这意味着它们应该像股票、债券和许多其他可交易资产一样受到监管。

While SEC Chair Gary Gensler has argued that many digital assets are unregistered securities, he’s refused to say if Ether is part of that group. Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital asset, is the only cryptocurrency that Gensler has definitively said isn’t a security in his view. He regards it as a commodity.

尽管 SEC 主席加里·根斯勒 (Gary Gensler) 辩称许多数字资产都是未注册的证券，但他拒绝透露以太币是否属于该类别。比特币是世界上最大的数字资产，也是 Gensler 明确表示不是证券的唯一加密货币。他将其视为一种商品。

The difference between Bitcoin and Ether in the eyes of the SEC lay in Ether’s staking mechanism. Putting money into a common pool and earning a return strikes many regulators as meeting the definition of a security. That meant that the applications for spot-Ether ETFs that proposed to allow staking were seen as unlikely to be approved.

在 SEC 眼中，比特币和以太币的区别在于以太币的质押机制。许多监管机构认为，将资金投入公共资金池并获得回报符合证券的定义。这意味着提议允许质押的以太币现货 ETF 申请被认为不太可能获得批准。

But issuers subsequently vowed to keep the Ether they buy out of staking programs and said they wouldn’t invest in Ether-related derivatives. The SEC has not said what led to the approval, but these kinds of concessions likely played a role.

但发行人随后发誓将把他们购买的以太币排除在质押计划之外，并表示他们不会投资与以太币相关的衍生品。美国证券交易委员会尚未透露是什么导致了批准，但此类让步可能发挥了作用。

What can we expect?

我们可以期待什么？

BlackRock and Fidelity will likely attract the most volume and assets, wrote Bloomberg Intelligence strategists James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, though they expect the Ether ETF flows over the next year to be around 20% of the Bitcoin ETF flows. That correlates to expectations of $5 billion to $6 billion of Ether ETF inflows.

彭博资讯策略师 James Seyffart 和 Eric Balchunas 写道，贝莱德和富达可能会吸引最多的交易量和资产，尽管他们预计明年以太坊 ETF 流量将占比特币 ETF 流量的 20% 左右。这与以太坊 ETF 流入 50 亿至 60 亿美元的预期相关。

Similar funds have done better outside the US in places including Hong Kong, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland, where spot Ether and Bitcoin ETFs recently launched. A key reason for the difference could be that other jurisdictions have ETFs that permit staking.

类似的基金在美国以外的地方表现更好，包括香港、加拿大、瑞典和瑞士，这些地方最近推出了现货以太币和比特币 ETF。造成差异的一个关键原因可能是其他司法管辖区拥有允许质押的 ETF。