Financial institutions and traditional investors in the US may be able to get exposure to ethereum (ETH) through a futures-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF) as early as the first quarter of 2022, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence estimated.
According to James Seyffart, this is when an ETF backed by regulated ETH futures contracts could be approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
He also noted that a spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF is also possible in 2022, however, SEC approval may also take longer due to concerns about regulation in the underlying bitcoin market, per Bloomberg.
Although widely considered a superior type of ETF in the crypto community, the SEC has so far been reluctant to approve a spot-based bitcoin ETF. Instead, it has opted for ETFs backed by regulated futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which do not hold any actual BTC.
Asked by Bloomberg TV about his views on the potential for an ethereum ETF, Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder & CEO of crypto exchange FTX, also said that he would not be surprised to see such an ETF approved.
Meanwhile, news also came out on Tuesday that the ETF provider Direxion has been asked by the regulator to withdraw its proposal for an inverse bitcoin ETF – dubbed the Direxion Bitcoin Strategy Bear ETF – that would offer short exposure to the price of bitcoin.
The company complied and requested the SEC to withdraw the application.
Finally an SEC move that will protect investors 🙃
— Geoff (@gdudg) November 2, 2021
At 10:40 UTC, ETH trades at USD 4,593 and is up by 3% in a day and 11% in a week, while BTC is almost unchanged in a day, standing at USD 63,203. The price went up by 4% in a week.
Source: Cryptonews
