The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is pushing back its decision on several Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to May 2024. The agency delayed its decision on the Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF and the Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF. The Hashdex Ether ETF aims to hold both spot Ether and futures contracts, while Grayscale’s Ethereum Futures ETF is seen as a “trojan horse” that would corner the SEC into allowing Grayscale to convert its Ethereum Trust to a spot Ethereum ETF. In the filings, the agency said it was instituting proceedings that involve gathering further public input around whether or not the ETFs should be listed. The agency also pushed back its decision on the VanEck spot Ethereum ETF and the spot Ethereum ETF lodged by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and 21Shares.
However, some analysts still expect approvals by early 2024 regarding Bitcoin (BTC) spot ETFs. Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas anticipate that the U.S. SEC will approve a spot Bitcoin ETF in January 2024 despite multiple last-minute amendments that applicants are scrambling to add to their proposals. Seyffart shared his observations about BlackRock’s latest spot Bitcoin ETF update, which accepted the SEC’s cash redemption system instead of in-kind redemptions or those implying non-monetary payments like BTC.
The analyst noted that multiple applicants, such as ARK, Bitwise and Valkyrie, have already set up a cash-only model, while some — including Grayscale and WisdomTree — still have in-kind or cash in their filings. In mid-December, finance lawyer Scott Johnsson predicted that ETF applicants would eventually have to bend their knee to using a cash creation and redemption model for their ETF.
Montenegro won’t extradite Do Kwon
A court in Montenegro has canceled the extradition approval of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to either the U.S. or South Korea. The High Court of Podgorica previously determined the legal requirements for Kwon’s extradition in November 2023, leaving the final decision on Kwon’s extradition to Montenegro’s minister of justice. According to the latest…
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