SEC asks for public comment for Grayscale, Bitwise and Fidelity spot Ethereum ETFs

Quick Take

  • On Tuesday, the agency asked for public comment on three proposed ETFs: the Fidelity Ethereum Fund, Grayscale Ethereum Trust and Bitwise Ethereum Trust. 
  • Optimism about the agency approving those products has decreased as Bloomberg analysts say silence from the SEC isn’t good news. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission is soliciting comments for a handful of spot ether exchange-traded funds, according to filings. 

On Tuesday, the agency asked for public comment on three proposed ETFs: the Fidelity Ethereum ETH +2.17% Fund, Grayscale Ethereum Trust and Bitwise Ethereum Trust. 

"The Commission is publishing this notice to solicit comments on the proposed rule change, as modified by Amendment No. 1, from interested persons," the agency said in the filing about Bitwise. 

Comments for all three are due in 21 days. 

Hope dwindles 

Optimism has damped on the SEC's potential approval for a spot ether ETF. 

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Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has since dropped his estimate of the chances of a spot Ethereum ETF approval by May from about 70 percent to 30 percent. 

James Seyffart, fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst, weighed in on Tuesday on Fidelity's filing. 

"I've been tagged in this tweet and bunch of others regarding the 19b-4 documents filed for the #Ethereum ETFs today. Nothing in the filings signal to me that anything has changed," Seyffart said. "Silence from the SEC isn't a good thing here."


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Sarah is a reporter at The Block covering policy, regulation and legal happenings. Before, Sarah was a reporter with CQ Legal writing about securities regulation, which is where she first started reporting on crypto. Sarah has also written for The Bond Buyer and American Banker, among other finance-related publications. She graduated from the University of Missouri and earned a degree in print and digital journalism. Sarah is based in Washington D.C., and is an avid coffee lover. You can follow her on Twitter @ForTheWynn.

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