Today, Bloomberg ETF analysts at the Consensus 2024 conference in Austin, Texas, US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressed his views on Trump's guilty verdict and cryptocurrency. Kennedy said he would focus on economic and health issues and would not be involved in Trump or Biden's legal disputes. Kennedy appreciated Trump's new support for cryptocurrency, believing that it would contribute to freedom and transparency. He hopes that President Biden will take a similar stance. Kennedy pointed out that the key issue of US cryptocurrency regulation is trading freedom and transparent currency. He promised to protect consumers from fraud while ensuring that the United States remains at the forefront of blockchain technology. He revealed that he bought 21 bitcoins during the campaign and bought three coins for each child. Kennedy also expressed his vision of using cryptocurrency as a trading currency and advocated not to impose capital gains tax on it. His campaign goal is to enable people to use cryptocurrency freely for daily transactions. Eric Balchunas said that after BlackRock and Grayscale updated their documents, the US spot Ethereum ETF may be launched at the end of June, which is a reasonable possibility. The possibility of a launch in mid-June is small, and the latest listing date for the product is expected to be July 4.
Balchunas’ expectations are influenced by the timing of issuers’ S-1 statements. He commented on BlackRock’s May 29 amendment to its S-1, which he noted did not include fees and other important data, making it close to final.
Grayscale filed an S-3 amendment for its funds on May 30, updating them to explicitly prohibit staking. The two announcements mark one of the last necessary steps before the funds can begin trading.
Jenny Johnson, President and CEO of Franklin Templeton, said in a discussion at Consensus 2024 that blockchain technology will be transformative, noting that the company is actively researching and applying the technology. She highlighted the efficiency of blockchain and the potential of tokenization to reduce operating costs. In addition, Franklin Templeton is one of the first issuers of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund approved in the United States, and is also awaiting approval to launch an Ethereum ETF.
