The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is telling asset managers to submit final versions of registration statements for spot Ethereum ETFs by Wednesday, with the products’ launches slated for July 23, two sources familiar with the SEC’s process confirmed to Decrypt.
The approval process for spot Ethereum ETFs has been notably slow since the regulator’s abrupt approval of spot Ethereum ETFs in May. Allowing investors to gain exposure to Ethereum through a traditional brokerage account, anticipation has increased steadily since.
The SEC’s recent communications with asset managers were first reported Monday by Bloomberg ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas, who wrote on Twitter (aka X) that the finalized registration statements should also include each fund’s respective management fees.
“Hearing [the] SEC [has] finally gotten back to issuers today, asking them to [...] request effectiveness on Monday after close for a TUESDAY 7/23 LAUNCH,” he wrote, adding that the timeline could change due to “unforeseeable last min[ute] issues.”
The details were confirmed to Decrypt by two separate sources, one of whom affirmed receiving similar communications from the agency.
While the SEC approved key filings for spot Ethereum ETFs in May, the regulator has yet to green light individual s-1 filings from eight asset managers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale. Previously, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that the approval process is dependent on ETF hopefuls providing investors full disclosures—but that it was still “going smoothly.”
Following the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, which have seen around $15.8 billion in inflows so far this year, the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs could be a relatively big moment for crypto’s second-largest coin by market capitalization. Per K33 Research, spot Ethereum ETFs could draw up to $4 billion in inflows within their first five months.
Still, as the approval process has played out, Ethereum’s price has faded from a peak in May of around $4,000. The asset’s price has climbed 15% over the past week to around $3,400, yet it plunged as low as $2,900 earlier this month.
Additional reporting by Liz Napolitano. Edited by Ryan Ozawa.