SEC Chair Gary Gensler didn’t comment on when his agency would approve Ethereum ETF for trading, but analysts predict it could be as soon as next week.
According to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, the initial spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States are proceeding effortlessly.
During a Bloomberg conference on June 25, Gensler declined to provide an answer regarding the ETFs’ launch date and refused to confirm whether they would be operational before the November U.S. elections.
“The primary concern is that asset managers must provide comprehensive disclosure for the registration statements to be effective,” he stated.
“The registration or disclosure statements are currently in our possession, and they are prepared at the staff level,” Gensler explained. “Once more, these disclosures are of paramount importance.” They are crucial to investors who are making investment decisions.
On May 23, the SEC approved 19b-4 filings from eight ETF bidders. However, the asset managers are still updating their Form S-1s, the final filings the SEC must approve before the ETFs can be traded.
Analysts have anticipated that the SEC will sanction the funds for trading as early as the first week of July, next week.
“Nothing inconsistent” about securities laws
The U.S. crypto industry has raised millions and lobbied to make digital assets an election issue in response to a deluge of enforcement actions from the Gensler-led SEC.
According to billionaire investor Mark Cuban, Gensler could “literally cost Joe Biden the election,” and presidential candidate Donald Trump declared that he would terminate President Joe Biden’s “war on crypto.”
When pressed about the comments made by Trump and Cuban, Gensler responded that he does not comment on elections.
“We have a set of regulations that are quite explicit.” He further stated that there is no contradiction between the securities laws and crypto securities. Regrettably, numerous individuals violate the law.
Gensler asserted that there were up to 20,000 crypto tokens that he claimed were investment contracts, a security category under U.S. law. He argued that these tokens were not providing American investors with the “appropriate disclosure.”
“This is a field in which the leading lights from a few years ago are either in jail, on the brink of being arrested, or awaiting extradition,” he stated.
“We are presenting that to the courts, and it will be resolved because individuals who are not adhering to the law are causing harm to the American public,” he continued.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse dismissed Gensler’s remarks regarding X as “absolute nonsense,” asserting that the SEC chief “completely overlooked FTX.”
“Gensler will cause Biden to lose the election.”
