SEC delays Grayscale spot Ethereum ETF to May

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has again delayed issuing a decision on Grayscale’s application to launch a spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF.

According to a message on the regulator’s website, the Commission requested public comments on how the regulator should handle Grayscale’s application. The SEC is interested in whether the ETH algorithm – Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and the concentration of a large volume of Ethereum in the hands of several individuals could make the fund vulnerable to fraud and manipulation.

The next application deadline is in May. The company first applied to launch a spot Ethereum ETF in October 2023. The SEC published its first decision on the application on Dec. 5, 2023. The deadline was January 25, 2024.

In addition to the application for a spot Ethereum ETF from Grayscale, the Commission previously extended the consideration of applications from Fidelity and BlackRock. The new deadline for the other two applications will be in March.

At the same time, journalists predict the adoption of spot Ethereum-ETFs by the summer of 2024. This will be preceded by a decision by the CFTC and the SEC to recognize that the second-largest cryptocurrency by capitalization does not comply with a security status.

Journalists suggested that such certainty could arise during the trial with Binance. They referred to the previous meeting, noting that DAO tokens can be considered securities.