The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not yet willing to make a decision on two critical features that those who have funded funds exchanged funds (ETF) hope to add to their products.
The regulator delayed a decision whether it would allow in-kind redemption for Bitcoin’s Fund of WisDomtree (BTCW) and Vaneck’s Bitcoin Fund (BITB) and Ethereum Fund (ETHW) on Monday. It also moved the deadline for a decision about a proposal’s Grayscale To allow the Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and Mini Ethereum Trust (ETH), which the Asset Manager’s exchange was requested, Nyse Arca requested in February.
The CBOE, the exchange associated with five of the other issues of an ETF ETF, including Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Vaneck and Invesco/Galaxy, submitted a amended filing in March for Fidelity Ethereum Fund (Feth) and the Franklin Ethereum ETF (Ezet).
The SEC does not allow staking in spots Ether ETFs. But with the appointment of the new SEC Chair Paul Atkins, which the Senate confirmed last week, things could change quickly.
Many other constituents, including Hong Kong, Canada and Europe, already have green lighted staking for ETFs, but it does not put much pressure on the SEC, an expert said.
“The SEC will take their time and move as fast or slow as they want,” said James Seyffart, ETF’s analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “They don’t care what other regulators do in my experience, they can learn from them but I don’t think the approved of a regulator has something to do with the SEC that jumps into the hoops and catch up. They’ll go to their own speed.”
The regulator now is up to June 3rd to make a decision on in-kind redemption of Bitwise and WisDomtree products and June 1st to decide the Grayscale staking proposal.
