ETH Spot ETF Trading Launch Postponed to July 8
The expected launch of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is likely to take place during the week of July 8. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas suggested that some of the applicants may have made mistakes in their documents. Despite the delay, market experts expect significant investor interest in Ethereum ETFs once they are approved.
Expectations for the launch of Ethereum spot ETF trading in the U.S. on July 2 have suffered a setback. New information indicates that the launch may be delayed until the week of July 8th.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas has changed his forecast for the launch of Ethereum spot ETFs in the United States. The development follows comments from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the second round of Form S-1 filings.
SEC Takes “Extra Time” on Ethereum Spot ETFs.
This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) returned S-1 forms to potential Ethereum ETF issuers. Balchunas mentioned that the forms were returned with minimal comments. However, issuers may have to wait until after the holidays next week to proceed.
“Unfort think we gonna have to push back our over/under till after holiday. Sounds like SEC took extra time to get back to ppl this wk (altho again very light tweaks) and from what I hear next wk is dead bc holiday = July 8th the process resumes and soon after that they’ll launch,” Balchunas said via X.
Industry experts had initially predicted that the regulator could approve ETH spot-linked funds by July 4, based on VanEck’s Form 8-A filing for its Ethereum ETF, which indicated that trading was imminent.
However, the Bloomberg analyst suggested that some oversights by the filers could have caused the new delay: “Agree, shouldn’t have taken this long. best theory is that not every issuer was as tight w docs so one or two of them could have slowed down process. Or just summer hours/laziness from Staff. No biggie this is just logistics, hard part is done.,” Balchunas added.
It is worth noting that, unlike Forms 19b-4, Forms S-1 do not have a fixed deadline and approval depends solely on the SEC’s satisfaction with the issuers’ proposed terms. In early June, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated that this process could “take some time” and that approval will depend largely on the responsiveness of filers to the Commission’s comments.
More on Ethereum Spot ETFs
Despite the delay, market experts believe the funds could attract significant investment once trading begins. Charles Yu, VP of research at Galaxy Digital, speculated that ETH ETFs could see as much as $1 billion in monthly inflows in the first five months:
“If futures markets and international crypto funds are any indication, we would expect ETH etf flows to be 20-50% of bitcoin etf flows. With $15 billion of net inflows into Bitcoin etfs to date, our estimated range implies eth etfs could see nearly $1 billion in monthly flows for the first 5 months,” Yu remarked.
This projection suggests that the funds could attract more than $11 billion in their first year of trading. Matthew Houang, CIO of Bitwise, has a similar view, predicting inflows of $15 billion within the first 18 months.
However, Yu also pointed out possible factors that could affect demand for ETFs. These include the lack of stakes, the liquidation of Grayscale’s ETHE and the funding rate for Ethereum ETFs.
In this regard, investors and analysts have remained optimistic about the potential performance of Ethereum spot ETFs when they finally begin trading.
By Audy Castaneda