BlackRock and Grayscale tweak Ethereum ETF filings in sign they hope to beat slim odds of approval

Market watchers put low odds on US regulators approving a batch of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds by the end of May, but that isn’t stopping issuers from trying.

BlackRock amended its ETF application on Tuesday as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s May 23 deadline to either approve or deny VanEck’s ETF application — the first of nine applications — approaches.

Grayscale also filed its prospectus to convert its futures Ethereum ETF into a spot fund, and an application for its Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust on Tuesday.

“Issuers clearly aren’t throwing in their towel on this,” Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, said on X, arguing that there is “no reason for spot eth ETF not to exist.”

The filings mark the latest effort from issuers to replicate the success of the 10 US spot Bitcoin ETFs that were launched in January, which have been a key driver behind the cryptocurrency’s 58% rally over the past four months.

While the SEC begrudgingly approved those ETFs on the back of Grayscale winning its court case to convert its futures Bitcoin ETF into a spot ETF, no such case exists for Ethereum.

Bloomberg Intelligence analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas put odds for a May approval at around 25%.

Similarly, punters on blockchain-based betting platform Polymarket put the odds of an approval at 14%.

“I don’t see anything that would change our odds,” Seyffart said on X on the back of the new filings. “That said, this definitely tells me that issuers aren’t giving up the fight.”

Not everyone in crypto wants to see spot Ethereum ETFs approved. At least not now.

In March, asset manager Bitwise’s CIO said it would actually be a good thing if the funds aren’t approved just yet.

“Wall Street, traditional finance just started ingesting this giant thing called Bitcoin,” Matt Hougan said on a panel last month. “We need another eight or nine months of digesting Bitcoin.

Sebastian Sinclair is a markets correspondent for DL News. Have a tip? Contact Seb at sebastian@dlnews.com.