Grayscale and Coinbase recently met with officials from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to discuss rule changes for launching Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Grayscale is seeking to convert its Ethereum Trust – a market price tracking tool for ETH – into an ETF, similar to the conversion of the Bitcoin Trust into an ETF in January. The meeting, held on March 6, comes after the comment period for proposals concluded and addresses concerns about market manipulation if the fund is approved.
According to a presentation shared by the SEC, Coinbase argues that similar reasons for approving a Bitcoin ETF should apply to Ether as the token has “significant inherent limitations regarding sensitivity to fraud and manipulation.”
Coinbase also highlights the correlation between Ether futures contracts and the spot market, similar to the Bitcoin market, noted Nate Geraci of ETF Store on Xchannel. “Additionally, the SEC has approved Ethereum Future ETFs traded on CME, and I’m not sure why they would deny Ethereum spot ETFs immediately.”
