The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on the Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications submitted by financial giants BlackRock and Fidelity.
This decision has initiated a period for public comments, inviting stakeholders to share their perspectives on the matter.
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The SEC initially postponed its verdict on the Ether ETF proposals from BlackRock and Fidelity in January. The agency has the authority to defer its decision a maximum of three times.
Analyst James Seyffart from Bloomberg Intelligence pointed to May 23 as possibly the final date for Ether ETF applications.
With this delay, the SEC is seeking opinions on whether the reasons behind the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs can be similarly applied to Ethereum-based ETFs.
The agency is also probing the community for viewpoints on potential manipulation risks associated with spot Ether ETFs and the comparability between spot and futures Ether ETFs. This inquiry suggests the SEC's thorough approach to understanding the nuances of Ethereum ETFs compared to their Bitcoin counterparts.
However, analyst James Seyffart from Bloomberg Intelligence noted:
We've seen a couple updates over the last 30 days...a lot of the updates thus far have been them bringing these Ethereum filings up to date with the things they learned in the bitcoin ETF process. There's nothing that's been updated that is specific to ETH.
As the industry awaits further developments, the coming weeks may offer more clarity on the future of Ether ETFs and their potential impact on the broader crypto market.
In other news, related to the SEC, Judge Tana Lin's ruling supports the agency's view that secondary crypto sales are securities in the Coinbase case.
