With 11 Bitcoin spot ETFs approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday (10th), market attention has turned to the approval time for Ether spot ETFs. According to Cointelegraph, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas believes that the likelihood of Ether spot ETFs being approved in May this year is as high as 70%.
Balchunas previously told Cointelegraph that he could not imagine a situation where Bitcoin spot ETFs are approved but Ether spot ETFs are not. He also mentioned that he heard from unofficial sources that there would be “no problem” with Ether spot ETFs.
At the same time, digital asset lawyer Joe Carlasare also believes that Ether spot ETFs will be approved this year, but the process “will take longer than expected.”
Balchunas estimates that there is a 70% chance that Ether spot ETFs will be approved before May (the SEC will make final decisions on several applications that month), but he also points out that the specific launch time is not yet clear.
Carlasare believes that Ether spot ETFs will not start trading until the third quarter of 2024, while Hashdex, one of the ETF application institutions, recently stated that this Ether investment product will start trading in the second quarter at the earliest. Steven McClurg, Chief Investment Officer of Valkyrie Funds, expressed that he would not be surprised if Ether spot ETFs and XRP ETFs are listed after Bitcoin spot ETFs are approved.
After the news of the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs came out earlier, the price of Ether (ETH) has risen by about 5% before the publication of this article, reaching $2,600, reaching a new high since May 2022.
ETH price trend in the past year (source: TradingView)
Related reports: “Standard Chartered Bank: Bitcoin may reach $200,000 by the end of 2025, Ether spot ETF expected to be approved in the second quarter of this year” “Bloomberg analyst claims that the U.S. SEC has implicitly recognized Ether as a commodity and believes that Ether spot ETFs may be approved.”
