Expectations that Ethereum spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) trading would begin in the United States from July 2 have been disrupted. New information suggests that the launch may be delayed until the week of July 8th.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas revealed this fact while explaining why the Ethereum ETF will not begin trading soon through social media platform
SEC taking “additional time” for Ethereum ETF application process
This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) returned Form S-1 to potential Ethereum ETF issuers. Balchunas noted that the forms were returned with minimal comments. But issuers will have to wait until after the holiday break next week to proceed.
“Unfortunately, it looks like the Over/Under will have to be postponed until after the holidays. It seems like the SEC took longer to get back to people this week (with very little adjustments), and I'm told they won't have time next week due to the holidays. [By July 8, the process will resume and it will be released soon,” Balchunas said .
Industry experts initially expected regulators to approve a fund linked to the Ethereum spot price before July 4 . They indicated that a deal was imminent based on Van Eck's filing of Form 8-A for the Ethereum ETF.
Read more: Ethereum ETF explained: What it is and how it works
But Bloomberg analysts hinted that new delays may have been caused by mistakes on the part of some of the applicants.
“[The best hypothesis] is that not all issuers did a thorough job of filing, so one or two may have slowed down the process. Or maybe it’s because of employees’ summer vacation or laziness,” Balchunas added .
Despite the delay, market experts believe the fund could attract significant investment once trading begins. Charles Yu, vice president of research at Galaxy Digital, expects the Ethereum ETF to see inflows of up to $1 billion per month in the first five months.
“Looking at trends in the futures market and international cryptocurrency funds, the inflow of the Ethereum ETF is expected to be 20-50% of the inflow of the Bitcoin ETF. “Given the $15 billion in net inflows into the Bitcoin ETF to date, our range of estimates suggests that close to $1 billion could flow into the Ethereum ETF each month over the first five months.” said:
Read more: Ethereum (ETH) price prediction 2024/2025/2030
According to these projections, the fund could raise more than $11 billion in its first year of trading. Bitwise CIO Matthew Hoang shared a similar view, predicting $15 billion in inflows in the first 18 months.
But Yu also pointed out potential factors that could impact ETF demand. These include staking shortages , the unwinding of Grayscale ETHE, the Ethereum ETF's funding rate, and more.
