A Form 8-A filing from global investment manager VanEck suggests that the spot Ethereum-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are close to becoming available to investors in the U.S.
Previously, asset managers vying for spot Bitcoin ETFs submitted Form 8-As about a week before those investment vehicles started listing and trading after securing approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
VanEck Preps For Imminent Ethereum ETF Live Trading
On June 25, VanEck filed an 8-A form for its VanEck Ethereum Trust — the requisite paperwork for companies to issue certain types of securities on national exchanges.
Although usually an uneventful phase of the registration process, the updated filing has caused senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas to speculate that spot Ether ETFs could be available for trading as soon as July 2 (seven days from now). Balchunas explains that his projection was supported by VanEck filing its 8-A form for its spot Bitcoin ETF exactly seven days before the fund went live on January 11.
Today’s situation slightly varies from January, nonetheless, when there was still uncertainty over whether the Bitcoin ETFs would actually be greenlighted. The SEC has already approved 19b-4 forms for eight Ether ETFs, and the securities regulator is now reviewing the would-be spot ether ETF issuers’s S-1 registration statements.
That officially makes ETH funds a matter of “when” not “if,” with SEC chair Gary Gensler stating on Tuesday during a Bloomberg Invest Summit in New York that the process of launching these products is “going smoothly”.
“It’s smoothly functioning — it’s really up to the asset managers to make the proper disclosures,” Gensler continued.
The Market Awaits
Bloomberg’s Balchunas previously suggested that the approval of the Ether ETFs in May was rather surprising and likely driven by political pressures from the current Joe Biden administration.
Gensler previously indicated that listing Ether ETFs on stock exchanges could take months, and the funds will likely be fully approved by the end of this summer.
Meanwhile, broker Bernstein said in a June 24 research report that the omission of the staking feature in the spot Ether ETFs will dampen strong institutional demand for the ETH vehicles.
However, in a detailed report early this month, VanEck predicted that ETH will hit $22,000 per coin by 2030, as it expects spot ETH ETFs to be larger than their Bitcoin peers.
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