In a historic development, spot Ethereum ETFs were approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday. The move comes after political expansions that broadened the agency’s view of its new financial tools.
“We expect that the improving political environment will see us see more victories for digital asset investors and developers to invest in bitcoin, ethereum, and other open source blockchain software through new legislation and victories in the courts,” said Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Asset Research at VanEck. Sigel wrote in a message to X shortly after the announcement.
Along with BlackRock, Grayscale and Fidelity, VanEck is one of the firms that has applied for the right to issue spot Ethereum ETFs.
“This is a historic step forward for the second-largest cryptocurrencies,” Bitwise wrote on Invest X. The company also stated that spot Ethereum ETF transactions have been approved.
Until this week, it was widely held that spot Ethereum ETFs were unlikely to gain SEC approval, despite the recent success of spot bitcoin ETFs. Billions of articles were invested in the article after it was approved and launched in January. Traditional financial institutions such as BlackRock and Fidelity have issued spot bitcoin ETFs, and individual institutional investors have purchased shares of these funds in recent months.
Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, which represents the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the USA, said that the SEC approval confirms something that has long been believed to exist in the crypto world.
“This week, this day, has been so different, as rollercoasters as deportations,” he wrote online. “The acceptance of ETH as a commodity is the same as we have always used it.”
Sigel agreed with Grewal’s explanation.
“The evidence clearly shows that Ethereum is a decentralized commodity, not a security,” he said. “What ETH offers as a commodity has been recognized by various holders through the CFTC’s regulation of ETH futures, the commission’s public statements, decisions by the federal courts, and now, hopefully, this ETF,” VanEck’s Sigel wrote.
Ethereum dapp maker Consensys also participated in these talks, but another point the company drew attention to was the SEC’s “problematic” situation against its digital assets.
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