In the latest move, the SEC has postponed approval of the Ethereum ETF Spot proposed by Franklin Templeton & Grayscale.
The scenario has been predicted in advance
As noted, the US Securities and Exchange Commission postponed the approval of Ethereum ETF Spot from Franklin Templeton and pushed it back to June 11, 2024. Likewise, the agency also delayed a similar proposal for the Grayscale Ethereum Trust on Tuesday, with the next deadline for a response being June 23, 2024. After this time, the SEC may approve or disapprove or initiate proceedings.
Previously, Franklin Templeton filed an S-1 registration statement for the Franklin Ethereum ETF in February. The fund will generally mirror the price of ETH, Coinbase Custody Trust Company will be the custodian, and Bank of New York Mellon will is the supervisor. As for Grayscale, they also filed form 19b-4 with NYSE Arca in October to convert the Grayscale Ethereum trust into an Ethereum Spot ETF.
Not only has Franklin Templeton & Grayscale been denied at this time, the SEC has also delayed decisions on the registration of other Ethereum ETFs, including VanEck's Ethereum Spot ETF, a fund from BlackRock and Fidelity. Previously, Grayscale also filed to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin trust into a Bitcoin ETF Spot fund. After many arduous efforts, Grayscale's move was also accepted by the SEC when they approved the Bitcoin ETF Spot in the United States in January.
Even though it was listed in January 2024 and US-traded Bitcoin ETF Spot funds have brought in cumulative net Capital of $12.38 billion, the SEC is always cautious about these decisions. With such moves by the SEC, the agency's postponement of approval of the Ethereum ETF Spot funds that were originally planned for May is not too surprising to the cryptocurrency community.
