The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on investment giant BlackRock’s proposed spot Ethereum ETF for the second time.
The original application to create the iShares Ethereum Trust was submitted to the SEC in November, but federal regulators delayed it two months later, claiming a “longer period of time to take action.” A new deadline was set for March 10, but that has now been dismissed, according to Monday’s filing.
The SEC has postponed decisions on several other spot Ethereum ETF applications, including Fidelity, Invesco, and Galaxy Digital. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart predicted delays would continue until the May 23 application deadline for VanEck and Cathie Wood’s investment firm, Ark Invest. These applications were submitted on September 6, 2023 (Fidelity starts in 2021) and the decision was first delayed by two weeks.
Interest in spot Ethereum ETFs is growing stronger as Bitcoin surges toward a new all-time high today, coming within 6% of the hotly anticipated milestone. The Bitcoin frenzy is largely due to the success of the spot Bitcoin ETF, which recorded inflows of $1.84 billion in just one week. The possibility of the same happening to Ethereum, which has hit its highest price in more than a year, is creating pent-up demand.
The upcoming Dencun upgrade of the Ethereum network is also seen as a bullish signal.
ETFs based on Ethereum futures will be available starting in October.
