By
Svetlana Soroka
June 14th, 2024
Soon after the 19b-4 approval by the US SEC, VanEck Investments swung into action by releasing a 37-second advertisement swaying viewers to “Enter the ether”.
In a milestone decision on Thursday, May 23, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved a total of eight spot Ether ETFs in a go, similar to what they did with spot Bitcoin ETFs.
The US securities regulator approved all the 19b-4 filings from BlackRock, Fidelity, VanEck, Grayscale, ARK 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, Bitwise, and Invesco Galaxy. These ETFs will be listed on three prominent national exchanges: CBOE, NYSE ARCA, and NASDAQ. This move will further expand Ethereum’s accessibility to a wider range of investors.
Note that the approval of the 19b-4 filings by the US SEC doesn’t permit the issuers to trade the ETFs until they secure the approval for their S-1 registrations. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart stated that this process would take a few more weeks to complete.
The approval of these Ethereum ETFs might have been influenced by political factors, considering that their approval was unexpected by many. Earlier on the same day, a coalition of House lawmakers, including Majority Whip Tom Emmer and New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer, urged the SEC to approve the ETFs in a letter.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers (incl Majority Whip Tom Emmer and NJ Democrat Josh Gottheimer) have sent Gary Gensler a letter urging the SEC to approve spot Ether ETFs (and 'other' digital assets) bc it offers investors crypto access in regulated transparent safe format pic.twitter.com/YLSJh6n0lF
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 23, 2024
Explaining the rationale behind this approval, the securities regulator said:
“The reason why the SEC passes the Ethereum spot ETF is mainly due to the correlation between CME Ethereum futures and certain spot Ethereum trading platforms. Most of the SEC documents provide data evidence of high correlation, and the monitoring and sharing agreements of CME and others can help prevent fraud and manipulation.”
VanEck Swings Into Action
Soon after the 19b-4 approval by the US SEC, VanEck Investments swung into action by releasing a 37-second advertisement swaying viewers to “Enter the ether”.
“Could it be the fuel to a less centralized and open-source economy?” VanEck’s ad queries. “What could Ethereum be? That’s up to you and me.”
enter the ether 🫴 pic.twitter.com/YXgKQFP5Nr
— VanEck (@vaneck_us) May 23, 2024
Until the time the SEC approves S1 registrations, VanEck advertisements will play a crucial role in attracting potential investors to the Ethereum fund.
On the other hand, Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal also called the Ethereum ETF approval a success while thus legitimizing the ‘commodity’ status for the crypto.
Despite the Ethereum ETF approval, the ETH price remains steady at $3,800. It has yet to see an upside momentum past $4,000.