The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made an unexpected move in the ongoing approval process by returning S-1 paperwork to identify Ethereum ETF issuers. According to a source from one issuer who talked with The Block, these forms were returned with a request for minor adjustments, and issuers were instructed to resolve the identified errors before resubmitting the amended forms. This circumstance shows that there may be delays in the path to ultimate approval for spot Ethereum ETFs and that at least one more round of filings will be required before the ETFs can begin trading.
Spot Ethereum ETF approval may have to wait
As is well known, S-1 forms are an essential component of the two-stage procedure that ETFs must go through before becoming operational. The SEC approved the issuers’ 19b-4 filing in May, meeting the original deadline, which is the first step toward approval of the spot Ethereum ETF. However, issuers are at the mercy of the SEC’s response time, as there is no set deadline for what happens in the S-1 form.
Although there have been multiple reports showing that spot Ethereum ETFs could begin trading on July 4th, this schedule is now regarded as unlikely.
Issuers are not sure when the ETFs will start trading. Although the SEC’s comments on the S-1 form and the subsequent resubmission process will make things clearer, the US regulator has not yet set a final deadline for these applications. The minor amendments suggested by the SEC show that there are no significant issues, but they also show that the S-1 form needs to be revised to achieve the desired level of compliance.
SEC chair Gensler said approval would come in the summer
While he did not give an exact timeframe, SEC chair Gary Gensler recently showed that approval for a spot Ethereum ETF would happen this summer, leaving investors and issuers in a quandary. The current approval process and the need for multiple filing rounds show how complicated the process is when introducing such financial products.
The SEC is now working on the request to change the S-1 form. Meanwhile, it shows that the approval process is still ongoing and may be extended. This extension may have a detrimental effect on the market for cryptocurrencies, especially Ethereum (ETH).
