The SEC Will Not Approve An Ethereum ETF Soon: TD Cowen

• According to TD Cowen, it is unlikely for the SEC to approve an Ethereum ETF soon.
• TD Cowen expects the SEC to gain experience with Bitcoin ETPs before approving Ethereum or other crypto token ETPs.
• TD Cowen’s research group thinks it could take up to 26 months before the SEC would approve an Ethereum ETF.

It is unlikely for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve an Ethereum ETF soon, according to TD Cowen, a leading American multinational investment bank. The TD Cowen Washington Research Group reported that the bank expects the SEC to gain experience with Bitcoin ETPs before approving Ethereum or other crypto token ETPs.

Earlier in the past week, the Group, led by Jaret Seiberg, noted that it could take up to 26 months before the SEC would approve an Ethereum ETF. It further stated that any approval of such would likely not happen until after the upcoming elections in the United States.

The Group noted:

Our expectation is that the agency will not be approving ETPs for other crypto tokens any time soon as we believe the SEC will want to gain experience from Bitcoin ETPs before it approves an Ethereum or other crypto token ETP.

The SEC approved the first set of spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this week following many years of delay and multiple rejections. The approved ETFs include Blackrock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (NYSE:GBTC), Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust (NYSE:FBTC), Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (NYSE:BITB), among several others.

TD Cowen is not alone in its projection of a longer wait before an Ethereum ETF is approved. According to reports, those at JP Morgan aren’t betting big either on an Ethereum ETF approval soon. 

Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a Managing Director at JP Morgan, is reported to have said that for the SEC to approve spot Ethereum ETFs in May, it would need to classify Ethereum as a commodity (similar to bitcoin) rather than a security, and he doesn’t see that happening any time soon.