Spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF applicants recently made amendments to their registration statements, with Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas predicting a potential launch date. Balchunas suggested that July 18 could be the day the fund is launched, although he refrained from providing a definitive prediction due to the uncertainty surrounding SEC plans.
The latest amendments made by the applicants include minor updates regarding fee waivers and seed transactions. Balchunas described these changes as minimal, stating, “Nothing to see here.” The SEC has requested applicants to submit their applications by a certain deadline, but they were not required to disclose fees at this stage.
Moving forward, the SEC is expected to provide guidance to the issuers soon, outlining the next steps for approval. Once this guidance is received, the applicants will need to fill in any remaining blanks, including fee details, before the launch can proceed.
The recent S-1 and S-3 amendments focus on the asset managers’ ability to issue ETFs, which is different from the previously approved 19b-4 filings that allow exchanges to list and trade the funds once they are launched.
Several asset managers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck, submitted amendments, with Bitwise filing its update earlier. These filings included details about seed investments, with Franklin Templeton disclosing that Franklin Resources Inc. purchased 4,000 shares at $25 per share, generating total proceeds of $100,000 for the fund.
VanEck and BlackRock also reported their seed capital investments in ETH, with VanEck gaining 2,929 ETH from the seed creation basket sale proceeds, and BlackRock purchasing 3,031 ETH. Both companies included waivers in their filings, indicating their intentions to waive sponsor fees up to a certain amount for a specified period.
In addition to these updates, VanEck announced that Cboe had submitted a proposed rule change to list and trade its spot Solana (SOL) ETF, which is a separate development from its Solana S-1 registration submitted earlier.
Overall, the recent amendments and updates suggest progress towards the potential launch of an ETH ETF, with key details being finalized by the applicants and regulatory authorities. Investors and stakeholders in the cryptocurrency space will be closely monitoring these developments as they unfold.