Spot Ether ETFs get SEC nod without a vote from Gary Gensler

The
United
States
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
(SEC)

approved
spot
Ether
exchange-traded
funds
(ETFs)
on
May
23,
but
the
approval
process
was
different
from
that
of
spot
Bitcoin
ETFs
approved
earlier
in
January.

Unlike
the
spot
Bitcoin
ETFs,
which
were
approved
by
a
vote
from
a
five-member
committee
including
SEC
chief
Gary
Gensler,
the
spot
Ether
ETFs
received
approval
from
the
SEC’s
Trading
and
Markets
Division.

The
SEC
approved
the
19b-4
filings
from
several
major
financial
firms,
including
BlackRock,
Fidelity,
Grayscale,
Bitwise,
VanEck,
Ark,
Invesco
Galaxy,
and
Franklin
Templeton,
but
did
not
provide
additional
comments
beyond
the
official
decision.
The
filing

stated:

“For
the
Commission,
by
the
Division
of
Trading
and
Markets,
pursuant
to
delegated
authority.”

While
many
in
the
crypto
community
were
perplexed
by
the
discrepancy
in
the
clearance
procedure
for
the
two
crypto
ETFs,
Bloomberg
ETF
analyst
James
Seyffart

explained
that
it
was
normal

He
noted
that
many
approvals
are
usually
handled
similarly,
and
requiring
the
SEC
to
hold
an
official
vote
for
every
decision
or
document
would
be
impractical.
He
added
that
it
would
have
been
interesting
to
see
the
political
alignments
if
there
had
been
a
vote.

Despite
Seyffart’s
explanation,
some
remain
skeptical.
One
user
on
X

pointed
out
that
a
commissioner
could
challenge
the
decision
within
the
next
10
days,
suggesting
the
delegated
authority
might
be
used
to
obscure
politically
sensitive
votes.

So
far,
this
is
the
most
intriguing
part
of
the
filing
to
me:

The
approval
was
issued
via
delegated
authority
which
means
there
won’t
be
public
commissioner
votes
to
see.
But
it
also
means
any
commissioner
(maybe
Crenshaw?)
can
technically
challenge
and
ask
for
a
review/vote

pic.twitter.com/744WGX7f9D

—
James
Seyffart
(@JSeyff)

May
23,
2024

Another
X
user

speculated
that
the
SEC’s
decision
could
be
influenced
by

factors
such
as
political
pressure,
the
upcoming
elections,
and
the
implementation
of
environmental,
social,
and
governance
(ESG)
rules.

The
crypto
industry
celebrated
the
SEC’s
spot
Ethereum
ETF
approval,
calling
it
a
“historic
move.”

Although
the

19b-4
forms
have
been
approved,
the
S-1
registration
statements
still
need
to
be
processed
before
trading
can
begin.
This
means
that
the
debut
of
spot
Ether
ETFs
on
exchanges
could
still
be
weeks
or
months
away,
as
the
issuers
await
the
SEC’s
approval
of
the
S-1
registrations.