The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission postpones decision on BlackRock and Fidelity's Ethereum spot ETFs again, seeking comments from market participants. Second postponement recorded in March.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States has once more delayed making a decision regarding BlackRock and Fidelity's applications to introduce Ethereum (ETH) spot ETFs.
Details regarding the application surfaced on the regulator’s site. The SEC has extended the deadline for reviewing the application yet again and has requested input from participants in the market.
“The Commission has reached any conclusions concerning any of the issues involved. Rather, as described below, the Commission seeks and encourages interested persons to comment on the proposed rule change.” SEC statement
The initial postponement of the decision on the applications was documented in January 2024. This March delay marks the second. The SEC can alter the decision date on applications up to three times.
As per Bloomberg analyst James Seyffarth, the instrument could potentially enter the market on May 23, 2024. This date corresponds to the deadline for the SEC to make a decision on VanEck’s application for launching a spot Ethereum-ETF.
In February, Franklin Templeton, an American investment fund managing $1.5 trillion in assets, joined the lineup of applicants seeking to launch an Ethereum-ETF. The firm intends to utilize Coinbase exchange as a custodian for storing ETH. Units of the Franklin Ethereum ETF are slated to trade on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).
Meanwhile, the SEC’s decision hasn’t had any impact on Ethereum's price. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has seen a surge of more than 7% over the past 24 hours, trading above $3,700 as of the time of writing, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Ethereum's rise followed closely the rapid ascent of Bitcoin (BTC) – on March 4, BTC came within striking distance of its all-time high, reaching $68,770.