Oleksandr Shatyrov
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved applications from Nasdaq (NDAQ), Interncontinental Exchange’s (ICE) NYSE, Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) and five others to list exchange-traded funds that invest directly in ethereum (ETH-USD), according to a Thursday filing.
The price of the second-largest cryptocurrency, ether (ETH-USD), swung between gains and losses on the news, currently up 1% to $3.81K.
The approval, which until early this week was seen as an unlikely outcome, is a huge win for the crypto world. Issuers of spot ether (ETH-USD) ETFs that got approved still need a separate green light from the SEC before the products can go live, the deadline of which has yet to be set.
“There is massive demand for digital assets and for too long access to them has been restricted to either the technically savvy or the already wealthy,” said Greg Moritz, chief operating officer and co-founder of crypto hedge fund Alt Tab Capital. ” We see the largest financial institutions in the world creating products to meet that demand and now we see a regulatory decision that embraces progress.”
“Perhaps the more interesting question the ETF approval poses, is that if it is possible for ETH, what other altcoins is it possible for,?” he posited.
A number of investment firms, including BlackRock (BLK), VanEck and Ark Investment Management, are all striving to gain the pivotal first-mover advantage in the race to introduce a spot ether (ETH-USD) ETF.
