It was meant to be a watershed moment for the industry, but crypto markets turned negative after the SEC approved regulatory filings that brings spot ether ETFs one step closer to trading.
Posted May 24, 2024 at 4:49 am EST.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cleared 19b-4s filings of eight spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) including BlackRock, Bitwise, Grayscale, Van Eck, Ark 21Shares, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton and Invesco Galaxy.
The greenlight from the securities regulator came as a shock to many industry proponents, with speculation only building over the last two days that the decision might be in favor of hopeful issuers
The price of ether rallied 30% in two days, with most of the price action centred around the SEC asking issuers to update their 19b-4 filings ahead of a key deadline on May 23. When the SEC did clear those filings, however, the price of ether did not set off on a course to higher ground. Instead, ETH is tracking lower, trading at around $3,600 at the time of writing, down 4% in the last 24 hours.
Some market participants argued that the disappointing price action might be due to the fact that approving 19b-4 filings does not immediately imply that spot ether ETFs will begin trading in the near future. The SEC still needs to approve S-1 documents, which could be weeks, or even months, away.
These 19b-4 filings are what stock exchanges send off to the securities regulator for approval before listing potential products for trading. Meanwhile, S-1 forms are the initial registration documents that detail how the fund would be managed by the respective issuers.
Others, suggested that the news of the 19b-4 approval was already priced in by the market in the days leading up to the deadline, expecting the more significant price action to begin when spot ether ETFs actually begin trading.
According to popular crypto trader “@DaanCrypto,” around $200 million worth of orders above the current price of ETH on Binance have been pulled, meaning that whales could have played a hand in suppressing prices.
“The exciting thing about the ETH ETF isn’t the price — it’s the politics. The message of crypto as a technology for good is breaking through and we must keep building momentum,” said Base creator Jesse Pollak on X.
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