Wall Street giants and major financial institutions, not native cryptocurrency players, are the driving force behind the push for the approval of spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to Bill Qian, the chairman of Cypher Capital and former global head of fundraising at Binance Labs. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Qian stated that it is now Wall Street firms who are doing their utmost to ensure the approval of ETFs, rather than those from the crypto community itself. Notable companies seeking to establish a spot Ether ETF include BlackRock, Grayscale, Fidelity, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck, Hashdex, and Franklin Templeton.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on VanEck’s ETF application until May 23. Additionally, it has also delayed its decision on the spot Ether ETFs from Hashdex and ARK 21Shares, with both applications expected to be decided upon in late May. While the approval of an Ether ETF would be a positive development for those in the crypto community, Qian highlighted that larger issuers have a greater vested interest due to the potential for ETF-related fees. Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF offers the highest fee at 1.5%, followed by BlackRock and Fidelity at 0.25%, and 21Shares at 0.21%.
Prior to the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, several applicants made multiple revisions to their S-1 filings in order to reduce their ETF fees, as they competed to offer the lowest management fees to clients. Among the 10 ETF issuers, Bitwise offered the lowest fees, providing ETFs with no fees for the first six months and $1 billion in assets, followed by a 0.20% fee.
Qian believes that the approval of a spot Ether ETF is “highly likely” to occur this year, primarily due to the demand from BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with trillions of dollars in capital. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, however, predicts that the current Ether ETF approvals will be declined in late May, as reported in a March 19 X post.