U.S SEC Delays Decision on VanEck Spot Ethereum ETF

• The government requested public feedback on the ETF and said it would take until May 23.
• The Ethereum Foundation has confirmed that it has received a confidential inquiry.

Yet another exchange-traded fund (ETF), the VanEck spot Ethereum ETF, is seeing its decision date postponed by the U.S SEC. The government requested public feedback on the ETF and said in a document submitted on Wednesday that it would take until May 23, 2024 to make a decision.

The SEC stated:

“The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposed rule change, as modified by Amendment No. 1, and the issues raised therein.”

Rising Regulatory Scrutiny

This follows a ruling that the SEC postponed the Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF and the ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF only one day earlier.

Notable firms that have lately applied for an Ethereum spot ETF include Fidelity and BlackRock. In recent weeks, the SEC’s chances of approving this product have been decreasing. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas recently estimated that the chances of a spot Ethereum ETF approval by May had dropped from around 70% to 30%.

Rising regulatory scrutiny of the crypto market was the background against which the statement was made. The Ethereum Foundation has confirmed that it has received a confidential inquiry for information from an unidentified state authority that has chosen to remain anonymous. This new information, together with the SEC’s postponement, highlights the complex regulatory landscape that digital assets are still confronted with.

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