Ethereum (ETH) has exploded in price on hopes of an approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot ETH exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Bitcoin rallied alongside ETH, and the sudden move has liquidated nearly $400 million worth of traders positions, according to current data from Coinglass.
The odds of an SEC approval of Ethereum ETFs were originally slim to none, but late on Monday, Bloomberg ETF experts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart announced they were raising the odds to 75%, up from 25%.
“Update:
James Seyffart and I are increasing our odds of spot Ether ETF approval to 75% (up from 25%), hearing chatter this afternoon that SEC could be doing a 180 on this (increasingly political issue), so now everyone scrambling (like us everyone else assumed they’d be denied).”
According to Washington, D.C.-based crypto legal expert Jake Chervinsky, the approval of an Ethereum ETF would be a “shock” to those close to Capitol Hill.
“If the spot ETH ETF is approved, it will be a true shock to everyone I know in DC who’s close to this process.
That doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
It means approval could signal a major shift in US crypto policy after the SAB (Staff Accounting Bulletin) 121 vote, perhaps more important than the ETF itself…
It’s hard to believe this SEC would do us any favors like approving the spot ETH ETF.
But policy is politics, and crypto has been winning the political battle for months.
Maybe the Biden camp saw how many voters Trump could win with one pro-crypto comment and decided to pivot.”
Reuters reported that “four people familiar with the matter” said the SEC has already asked Nasdaq, CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange) and the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) to “fine-tune their applications” to list spot Ethereum ETFs, “signaling the agency may be poised to approve the filings.”
At time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $3,798.
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