US SEC Expected To Deny Ethereum ETFs In May, Insiders Claim

Key Points

• Reuters notes that the US SEC is expected to deny the spot Ethereum ETFs in May.
• This would mark a drawback for the crypto industry in the US, especially since Hong Kong has recently approved the first batch of BTC and ETH ETFs.

New reports from the Reuters press agency reveal that the US SEC could deny the spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds in May, citing sources familiar with the matter.

US issuers and other firms are expecting to see the Securities and Exchange Commission denying their applications after some discouraging meetings with the regulatory agency during the past weeks.

VanEck, ARK Investment, and seven other issuers have previously filed with the SEC to list ETFs that would track the spot price of Ethereum. The SEC has to decide on VanEck’s and ARK’s filings, which are the first in line, according to the same reports, by May 23 and May 24, respectively.

The recent meetings between issuers and the regulator have reportedly been one-sided, and the agency’s staff have not discussed substantive details about the proposed products, according to sources cited by Reuters.

The current ETH ETF discussion-related landscape is different compared to the intensive and detailed discussions that took place between issuers and the SEC in the weeks before the US saw the approval for the Bitcoin ETFs at the beginning of this year.

If the SEC makes such a decision and declines the approval of ETH ETFs in the US, this would mean a drawback for the industry in the country, and in the overall crypto world race, especially since Asia is making optimistic moves in this direction.

Hong Kong tests its crypto hub ambition

Recently Hong Hong has approved the first batch of both Bitcoin and Ethereum types of ETFs. According to the latest reports coming from HashKey Capital-Bosera, Hong Kong will start trading the BTC and ETH ETFs on April 30.

The other day, Bloomberg published an article analyzing Hong Kong’s ambition to be a digital asset hub, and noting that the trading of BTC and ETH ETFs will be a move that tests this aim.

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Rebecca Sin estimated that the funds could amass $1 billion in assets under management over a couple of years.

Regarding Ethereum’s price today, at the moment of writing this article, ETH is trading a little above $3,100, down by over 5% in the past 24 hours on CoinMarketCap.