Although the relatively fast approval of the Ethereum spot ETF last week surprised some, TD Cowen’s research team, an investment bank, believes that this approval was inevitable following the earlier approval of the Bitcoin ETF this year. The bank also believes that the approval of other funds is only a matter of time, such as funds tracking a basket of tokens.
According to a previous report by Zombit, the SEC approved the 19b-4 proposal related to the Ethereum spot ETF last week. However, investors still have to wait for the SEC to approve the S-1 registration statement submitted by the fund issuer before trading such ETFs can begin. Discus Fish, the founder of Cobo, a digital asset custody solution provider, predicts that the S-1 document for the Ethereum spot ETF may be approved in early June, with trading starting in mid-June at the earliest.
However, this approval does not mean that the SEC has completely changed its attitude towards cryptocurrencies. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler recently made a highly critical statement against cryptocurrencies, opposing cryptocurrency market structure bills that could weaken its institutional power.
Despite possible setbacks, TD Cowen predicts that the regulatory agency will maintain its Democratic majority position until 2026. The researchers wrote, “…we expect the agency to continue filing lawsuits against cryptocurrency trading platforms that it deems are trading tokens it considers to be unregistered securities.”
