SEC Could Approve Spot Ethereum ETFs in May, According to Standard Chartered: Report

International cross-border bank Standard Chartered reportedly anticipates US federal regulators to greenlight the offering of a spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) months after approving a similar financial product for Bitcoin (BTC).

In a new report, Bloomberg says that Standard Chartered expects the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to rule on the spot Ethereum ETF applications of asset managers VanEck and Ark 21Shares on May 23rd.

The report says Standard Chartered believes the SEC will decide on the said date just as the regulator did with the approval of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10th.

Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research Geoff Kendrick says Ethereum and Bitcoin have key legal and financial status similarities, which makes it likely that the spot Ethereum ETF will also get approved.

Kendrick says the price of Ethereum may also increase to $4,000 by May 23rd if the second-largest crypto asset by market cap follows Bitcoin’s trading pattern during the ETF approval process.

But the London-based company expects ETH to avoid much of the selloffs that Bitcoin experienced following the ETF approval as investors sold billions of their Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) holdings.

Compared with the amount of Bitcoin in GBTC, Grayscale’s Ethereum trust holds only a small percentage of ETH’s total market cap.

Says Kendrick, according to Bloomberg,

“These factors should make ETH less vulnerable than BTC to a post-approval selloff.” 

ETH is currently trading for $2,283.

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