Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, suggested on Wednesday that the agency’s approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) shouldn’t be interpreted as a hint of how it plans to handle Ethereum going forward.
“What we did in January was cabined to one set of filings,” Gensler said in a CNBC interview. “We have other filings… in front of us, but I’m not going to prejudge it for you or the audience. That’s something that a five member commission discusses and reviews.”
In the past few months, well-known companies like Fidelity and BlackRock have submitted applications for a spot Ethereum ETF, hoping that the SEC would approve the product after approving spot bitcoin ETFs last month.
Regarding the likelihood of a spot Ethereum ETF being approved soon, cryptocurrency experts are divided; however, some believe the SEC might approve one as early as May. In the meantime, Gensler has maintained that the organization he oversees is “merit neutral.”
He mentioned the spot bitcoin ETFs and stated, “We approved a group of about 11 at one time. This was not the first way you could buy or express a risk in bitcoin. But as we like to say, we’re merit neutral.” He continued, “This was not in any way like an approval of bitcoin.”
Those spot bitcoin products were posted a month ago, and Gensler voted to authorize them. At the time, he declared that he did not support bitcoin and that, in light of a recent court decision, it was time to proceed.
On CNBC Squawk Box, a host questioned Gensler’s claim that the agency was merit-neutral and made the suggestion that the SEC might have been pushed to act as a result of the court case.
Gensler replied, “We’re merit neutral if someone is complying with the laws. So they’re giving full, fair and truthful disclosures to the American public who get to decide on their investments.”
Gensler continued, “We also have an investor education responsibility at the SEC particularly about those investments that are non compliant with either the securities laws or other commodities laws and so forth.”
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