According to the latest news, the Ethereum spot ETFs, following the historic approval of Bitcoin ETFs, could be approved by May of this year. However, at the moment there is nothing certain.
On the contrary, the banking giant JPMorgan, and not only, has recently expressed some caution regarding this imminent approval. Let’s see all the details below.
JPMorgan expresses caution regarding the approval of Ethereum ETFs by May
As anticipated, the Securities and Exchange Commission has set May as the first deadline for the approval of Ethereum-linked exchange traded funds (ETFs), but JPMorgan remains cautious.
According to Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou of JPMorgan, in order for the SEC to approve spot Ethereum ETFs by May, it should consider Ethereum as a commodity, similar to Bitcoin, rather than a security.
Panigirtzoglou has indeed added:
“This perspective is anything but certain, and I would give less than 50% probability that the SEC will classify Ethereum as a commodity by May.”
Therefore, despite the recent approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs by the SEC after over a decade of rejections, JPMorgan remains cautious about Ethereum ETFs.
The remarkable increase in the price of ETH, almost 20%, compared to Bitcoin’s 2.5%, in the last week has led traders to bet on the imminent approval of spot ETFs on Ethereum.
However, Panigirtzoglou argues that the SEC has not changed its stance on classifying cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin as securities.
The Chairman of the SEC, Gary Gensler, stated last year that tokens based on staking protocols, such as Ethereum’s ETH token, could be considered securities under US laws.
During a nearly five-hour session with lawmakers last year, Gensler neither confirmed nor denied whether Ethereum was considered a security.
In addition, it recently emphasized that the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs should not be interpreted as an indication of the Commission’s willingness to approve listing standards for cryptocurrency securities.
IntoTheBlock analysis: traders optimistic about the upcoming Spot ETF
The famous analysis company IntoTheBlock claims that traders are already operating under the belief that Ethereum (ETH) will be the next cryptocurrency asset to obtain an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the spot market.
In a new analysis, Lucas Outumuro from IntoTheBlock states that Ethereum has significantly outperformed Bitcoin in recent days following the “false” approval of spot-based BTC ETFs.
As we know, on Tuesday a malicious individual compromised the SEC’s X account in the United States and spread a false post claiming that the regulator had approved a Bitcoin ETF on the spot market.
According to the company’s research manager, the rapid rise of Ethereum is a signal that traders are already anticipating the approval of Ethereum ETF requests in the spot market:
“Ether has outperformed Bitcoin by over 10% since the false initial approval of the spot ETF was spread on Tuesday. With Blackrock and many other entities awaiting approval for spot ETFs on Ethereum, the market seems to assign high probabilities of approval.”
Some statements regarding Ethereum ETFs
Regarding the above mentioned, we see that Outumuro also believes that the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs paves the way for a spot Ethereum ETF.
“The approval of the SEC further increases the chances of the ETH ETF, stating that “fraud or manipulation that affects prices in the Bitcoin spot markets would likely have a similar impact on Bitcoin CME futures prices.”
Since Ethereum already has a futures ETF, it seems that the SEC may follow the same logic in approving a spot ETF on Ethereum, as both are subject to the same type of potential manipulation.”
Outumuro notes that traders are also accumulating cryptographic assets to support the ETH ecosystem:
“Furthermore, the market has favored investments related to ETH with higher beta, with layer-2 tokens and liquid staking protocols that have recorded gains of over 10% this week, and with additional catalysts fueling them.”
The executive of IntoTheBlock concludes his analysis by stating that traders see the potential approval of ETH ETFs as the next major catalyst for Ethereum:
“Market speculators have already shifted their attention to ETH in anticipation that spot ETFs will generate a similar effect on the second largest cryptocurrency asset.”