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In a latest growth, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has further dampened the temper within the crypto neighborhood following its determination to postpone two Spot Ethereum ETF purposes. 

The SEC’s Announcement

In two separate releases, the Commission introduced that it was delaying its determination on the proposed rule change by the Cboe BZX Exchange to record and commerce the shares of the VanEck Ethereum ETF and ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF.  

This determination comes only a day after the Commission introduced extending the deadline to determine on ARK Invest’s Spot Bitcoin ETF application to January 10, 2024. A call on ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF wasn’t due till November 11. 

Similarly, the SEC delayed these pending ETH ETF purposes weeks earlier than the November 10 and 11 deadline for the VanEck Ethereum ETF and ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF purposes, respectively. 

The SEC will now have a further 45 days (which begins working from November 10 and 11) to determine on these purposes, with the second deadline coming in December. According to the SEC’s releases, a call on the VanEck Ethereum ETF is ready for December 25, whereas a call on the ARK 21Shares Ethereum ETF will come on December 26.

ETH worth stays robust above $1,600 | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com

How This Could Play Out

Contrary to earlier stories, asset supervisor VanEck had filed for the first Spot ETH ETF, not ARK Invest. The former had filed its software way back to May 7, 2021. Meanwhile, the Ark 21Shares Ethereum ETF was filed on September 6 this yr. 

Going by this and the SEC’s announcement, the asset supervisor may have a first-mover benefit over others if the purposes have been to be accredited based mostly on submitting dates.

However, it stays to be seen if the SEC will approve any of those purposes within the first place, as there’s the chance that these purposes may face the identical therapy that the Commission has meted out to the pending Spot Bitcoin ETF purposes. 

Whatever occurs, the court’s ruling in Grayscale’s case towards the SEC would undoubtedly affect the Commission’s determination on these Spot ETH ETFs, particularly if the pending Ethereum futures ETF have been to launch as deliberate in October.

If these ETFs have been to launch, VanEck and ARK Invest also can argue that their Spot Ethereum ETFs must be accredited on the grounds that the courtroom has dominated that the futures and spot market are correlated. 

Meanwhile, if the SEC chooses to play this out until the tip, the earliest a remaining determination on these pending Spot Ethereum ETF purposes might be made is round May 23, 2024, according to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart.  

Featured picture from Analytics Insight, chart from Tradingview.com