Key Points
- Standard Chartered analyst believes that other cryptos including SOL and XRP could see ETFs in 2025, while BTC and ETH’s dominance rises this year.
- He suggested that Ethereum ETFs’ approval implies that ETH and similar coins are not securities.
Ethereum ETFs have just been approved for listing by the SEC. The regulator signed off on a proposal by exchanges including Cboe Global Markets, NYSE, and Nasdaq to list products tied to ETH.
The SEC approved 19b-4 forms the other day, and the S-1 applications are still pending. The approval has been granted for eight participants: Grayscale, Bitwise, BlackRock, VanEck, Ark 21Shares, Invesco, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton.
The SEC approved the Ethereum spot ETF proposal of Grayscale and Bitwise to trade on the NYSE stock exchange; iShares (BlackRock) on Nasdaq; along with VanEck, ARK/21 Shares, Invesco, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton on the Cboe BZX stock exchange.
The next wave of ETF approvals to come in 2025
Now, Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendrick said that the next wave of approvals of crypto ETFs will most likely happen in 2025.
The head of forex and digital assets research at Standard Chartered Bank said that, for other coins, markets will look ahead to their eventual ETF status as well, but this will be a story that will unfold the next year.
According to him, the fact that the US SEC decided to approve the listing of Ethereum ETFs also involves that the regulator does not consider Ethereum and other similar digital assets as securities.
Such coins including XRP have previously been under the radar, but, from now on, they might not be considered securities.
Kendrick said that in several cases, the core technology is so similar to ETH that it would be difficult for the SEC to claim that they are securities, given the current position of ETH.
He also noted that the crypto industry seems to have political backing from both sides now, calling the crypto backing in the US a “true watershed moment.”
Kendrick also said that the next question is not whether but when the market will see more changes in regulation.
The rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum dominance
The market could be looking ahead for more crypto ETF products, but for now, the analyst expects to see the dominance of the most important digital assets that have already managed to get approval for ETFs – Bitcoin and Ethereum.
He sees this dominance increasing especially in a Sharpe ratio context, with more winners emerging in the future as well.
The analyst also offered an optimistic prediction for Bitcoin’s price by the end of 2024, seeing BTC trading at $150,000. He also expected more inflows for BTC ETFs, saying that a portfolio containing both BTC and ETH ETFs would be “attractive.”
Regarding the Ethereum ETFs, Kendrick expects trading to begin as early as next month, reiterating the fact that such funds could bring in inflows worth $15 to $45 billion within the first 12 months. He also sees ETH’s price surging up to $8,000 by the end of 2024.
