The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its decision on two spot Ethereum ETFs.
In a statement shared on Tuesday, 19th March, the SEC announced that it has postponed the spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds applied by Hashdex and Ark 21Shares for future dates. The decision date for Hashdex’s application has been postponed to 30th May, and the decision date for the joint application submitted by Ark 21Shares has been postponed to 24th May.
The regulator’s statement about the reason for the delay mentioned the need for time to thoroughly review the proposed rule change:
The Commission determines it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to evaluate the proposed rule change and the issues raised herein.
The weak communication with companies looking to issue spot Ethereum ETFs and lack of substantial discussions regarding the process had caused the approval probability for May to become uncertain. Senior ETF analysts at Bloomberg recently reduced the probability of a spot Ethereum ETF approval in May from 70% to 30%.
