spot ETH ETFs
Some ETF analysts believe spot ETH ETFs will launch on July 23. AFP

KEY POINTS

  • Bloomberg ETF analysts believe the funds will launch on July 23, two days before Day 1 of Bitcoin 2024
  • The Ethereum blockchain will celebrate nine years of its launch at the end of the month
  • Ether has struggled to reach the same levels of success as Bitcoin amid a lack of regulatory clarity

In what could be the biggest "irony" of the year in crypto, analysts now say the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will fully approve spot Ethereum ($ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during the week of the largest Bitcoin event, Bitcoin 2024.

Bitcoin 2024

The much-awaited Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, will run from July 25-27 and will see some of the industry's most prominent figures, including MicroStrategy's executive chairman, Michael Saylor. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will also speak at the event.

Spot $ETH ETFs approval

Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas revealed Monday that he heard the SEC has "finally gotten back to issuers" regarding their amended S-1 documents. The regulator has supposedly asked applying issuers to resubmit their final amended S-1 forms (with fees) by Wednesday and "request effectiveness on Monday after close for a Tuesday 7/23 launch," Balchunas added.

He reiterated that the projected launch date will only be possible unless there aren't last-minute issues somewhere in the approval process.

James Seyffart, another Bloomberg ETF analyst, noted that the funds are "ironically" launching in the same week as the Bitcoin 2024 conference.

Rivals to the end?

Bitcoin and Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, have been pitted as "rivals" in some crypto circles. After all, $ETH is the world's second-largest digital asset by market value.

If the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs does fall on the week of the Bitcoin 2024 event, it could potentially highlight the rivalry between the two tokens, especially with another milestone for Ether to celebrate later this month.

Ether's rocky road to the top

Ether, which was introduced to the crypto market by programmer Vitalik Buterin in 2013, is celebrating its 9-year anniversary of going live on July 30. The asset's price is still very far from that of $BTC, but its community has been steadily growing over the years, and they have been driving interest in the coin, especially after applicants filed for the first spot ETH ETFs.

Last week, Ethereum was a top business and finance trend on X after applicants submitted amended S-1 filings to the SEC. Chair Gary Gensler did not provide an exact timeline for the funds' full approval, but he did say the ETFs will go live sometime in the summer.

Despite growing interest in an Ethereum ETF, a major issue for the crypto community is the SEC's confusing stance on Ether's status as a commodity or a security. The said issue has become a thorn in the digital asset's path toward growing as huge as Bitcoin.

Even with the partial approval of the $ETH ETFs, the SEC has yet to clarify whether it deems the asset a security. It has stopped investigating the Ethereum blockchain, but hinted that its decision doesn't mean the network has been exonerated.

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