According to Decrypt, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on BlackRock's spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) application. The filing indicates that the SEC believes it is appropriate to designate a longer period for action. BlackRock, the world's largest fund manager, applied for a spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF in November, aiming to provide investors exposure to the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, ETH.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink mentioned in a CNBC interview last week that he sees value in having an Ethereum ETF and considers the approval of such funds as stepping stones towards tokenization. BlackRock's spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF was approved on January 10 and began trading the following day. The iShares Bitcoin Trust has been the most successful of all 10 ETFs currently trading, with $1.7 billion in assets under management. Crypto ETFs enable investors to gain exposure to digital assets without the need to purchase and store the crypto themselves.
Other prominent firms such as Ark Invest, Fidelity, and Grayscale are also looking to introduce their own ETH ETFs. This comes after the SEC's approval of spot BTC ETFs following a decade of denying the products. Senior Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas has stated that he is 70% confident that a spot ETH ETF will be approved by May.
