Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas says his “best guess as of now” is that spot Ethereum ETFs will start trading in the US before July 2.
Eric Balchunas, a Bloomberg ETF analyst, has indicated that spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may commence trading in the United States by July 2.
“We are moving up our over/under date for the launch of spot Ether ETF to July 2nd,” Balchunas wrote in a June 15 post on X, noting that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’ (SEC) staff comments on the ETF applicants S-1 applications were “pretty light, nothing major,” and asked for them back within the week.
“Decent chance they work to declare them effective the next week and get it off their plate before the holiday weekend. Anything is possible but this is our best guess as of now,” he added.
The comments appear to be a turnabout in confidence from the previous day, when Balchunas stated that Ether ETF applicants were still awaiting feedback from the Division of Corporation Finance, a division of the SEC that regulates firms’ disclosures.
He was contemplating whether to postpone his July 4 prediction.
The SEC approved eight 19b-4 filings on May 23 to list spot Ether ETFs on various U.S. exchanges.
However, they are unable to commence trading until they receive the necessary S-1 registration statement approvals.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler Broadened Potential Approval Date
SEC Chair Gary Gensler offered a more comprehensive timeline for the potential commencement of trading in spot Ether ETFs, suggesting that it could occur by the end of September within the next three months.
However, Gensler had previously stated that the rapidity of Ether ETF approvals would be contingent upon the speed with which issuers could respond to comments from the SEC, which was only a week ago.
Although some traders are optimistic that Ether’s price could replicate Bitcoin’s chart movements following the approval of ETFs on January 11, which surged to record highs of $73,679 by March 13, not all traders share this optimism.
Stephen Richardson, the managing director of financial markets at Fireblocks, contended on June 3 that spot Ether ETFs will not experience the same level of day-one inflow as spot Bitcoin ETFs, as the asset’s use cases are significantly more challenging to assess.
He stated in his comments to Cointelegraph, “What’s missing is widespread consensus that effectively evaluates the utility or utilization rate of the Ethereum blockchain.”
