Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein has said the SEC will now be more inclined to approve an Ethereum ETF. The United States saw the first approved Bitcoin ETF last week. It marked the end of an eight-year-long since the first bitcoin ETF was filed. ProShares saw the approval of its Bitcoin Futures ETF on Monday, October 18th, and is set to trade on the NYSE today.
This was no doubt a historic moment for the crypto market. The battle for the first approved crypto ETF has been a drawn-out one and now investors can trade on bitcoin ETFs directly from their investment accounts like a ROTH.
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However, the approval of the first bitcoin ETF has led to discussions about when the market will see approval for an Ethereum ETF. Speculations are that the market would see the first ETH ETF soon and Grayscale CEO agrees.
SEC Approving An Ethereum ETF
Sonnenshein was on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday to talk about the approval of the first Bitcoin ETF. The CEO sees this as a step in the right direction for the crypto market after the SEC gave the green light for the ETF. He remarked that this showed that the Securities and Exchange Commission was getting more relaxed around the idea of cryptocurrencies.
ETH price trading at $3,812 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Sonnenshein added that since the regulator had approved the bitcoin ETF, it is only a matter of time before an Ethereum ETF was approved by it. Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market and has seen interest in it match, and sometimes surpass, that of the top cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Multiple firms have filed Ethereum ETFs alongside their Bitcoin ETFs. Although both VanEck and ProShares had been asked by the SEC to withdraw their Ethereum ETFs when it was considering the Bitcoin ETFs for approval. This does not mean that the ETH ETFs have no merit. At this point, the Bitcoin ETFs have taken precedence due to their long history of filings to the regulator.
Grayscale Sets Sights On Bitcoin Spot ETF
NewsBTC reported over the weekend that Grayscale was planning to file a Bitcoin Spot ETF application. The investment firm has decided to go in another direction to current Futures ETF by converting its Futures ETF filings to a Spot ETF filing. Grayscale did this in response to growing competition after ProShares saw its Bitcoin Futures ETF approved for trading on the NYSE.
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In a bid to realize higher trading volume than the Futures ETFs, the Grayscale Spot ETF has been argued to be a more superior filing to the Futures ETF. Investors are likely to lose out on gains due to growing contango when the futures contracts expire at a higher price than the spot price.
Grayscale is still waiting on the go-ahead from the SEC before it can file the application to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a Bitcoin Spot ETF.
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