Grayscale Investments and Bitwise Asset Management, two major crypto asset managers, have put their plans for an Ether (ETH) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) on hold due to increased scrutiny from US regulators. On May 17, Grayscale filed a request to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to remove all mentions of an Ether futures ETF from its filing, just days after submitting three ETF product plans to the regulator. The company’s two other flagship products are a semi-spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF that would invest in the spot BTC market, and a privacy ETF that would focus on investing in privacy-centred blockchain firms and digital assets.
Grayscale just filed for a semi-spot bitcoin ETF, as well as Ethereum Futures ETF and a Privacy ETF. Interesting.. pic.twitter.com/MPruDolp7G
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) May 9, 2023
The SEC had requested that Grayscale withdraw its application for a Filecoin Trust, warning that the underlying asset, Filecoin (FIL), qualified as a security. Grayscale argued that the underlying asset did not qualify as a security and will respond to the SEC’s accusation promptly. Meanwhile, Bitwise has entirely withdrawn its plan to launch an ETH-based futures ETF and won’t be seeking the fund’s effectiveness. Regarding the matter, Bitwise did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comments.
While a Bitcoin-based futures ETF launched in Q4 2021 raised hopes of a spot crypto ETF, regulators have become more sceptical of such products following two years of cryptocurrency volatility in 2022.
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