A lawsuit won’t be necessary to convince the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to approve spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications, says SEC Commissioner Hester “Crypto Mom” Peirce.
“We shouldn't need a court to tell us that our approach is ‘arbitrary and capricious’ in order for us to get it right,” said Peirce in a Jan. 24 interview with Coinage Media, harking back the Grayscale court ruling that preceded the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States.
“That’s not how we’re going to do our approvals,” Peirce added.
Peirce — known as “Crypto Mom,” for her comparatively sympathetic stance towards crypto — said the SEC would presumably apply the same “precedent” that came from Grayscale, however, she acknowledged the facts and circumstances vary immensely with each ETF application.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into getting an exchange-traded product ready for market, including making sure that the disclosures are lining up with how the product actually works,” Peirce said.
“Having heard from a court that the approach we were taking was wrong [...] I think that kind of a lesson will certainly stick with us.”
BlackRock, VanEck, ARK 21Shares, Fidelity and Invesco Galaxy, Grayscale and Hashdex are among the spot Ether ETF applicants vying for SEC approval.
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Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas pegged the chances of a spot Ether EFT approval at 70% by May.
The SEC must decide on VanEck’s application by May 23, ARK 21Shares by May 24, Hashdex by May 30, Grayscale by June 18 and Invesco by July 5.
Fidelity and BlackRock’s applications must be decided by Aug. 3 and Aug. 7.
Balchunas recently told Cointelegraph that it seems most likely that Ether ETFs now have a straight shot at approval, adding that it was difficult to imagine a scenario where spot Bitcoin ETFs are approved while spot Ether ETFs are not.
“The Ether spot is tied to the hip of Bitcoin spot for sure. It’s gonna go wherever it goes. It’s basically like on a 15-foot rope following it.”
However, other industry pundits are less optimistic.
Morgan Creek Capital’s CEO Mark Yusko predicts there’s a less than 50% chance of an approved spot Ether ETFs, arguing that the SEC remains broadly hostile toward the crypto industry.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler also stressed in a Jan. 11 letter that approving a spot Bitcoin ETF wouldn’t lead to a mass approval of other cryptocurrency ETF applications.
“[The spot Bitcoin ETF approval] should in no way signal the Commission’s willingness to approve listing standards for crypto asset securities.”
“As I’ve said in the past, and without prejudging any one crypto asset, the vast majority of crypto assets are investment contracts and thus subject to the federal securities laws.”
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