SEC Rejects Grayscale Again, May Face Lawsuit; Standard Chartered Bank: SEC to Approve Ethereum Spot ETF in May

According to a senior executive at Standard Chartered Bank, he believes that just like the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF on the final deadline of January 10th, the SEC will also approve an Ethereum spot ETF on May 23rd, aligning with the arguments made by various ETF analysts previously.

Reason 1: SEC has never considered ETH as a security

According to a report by The Block, Geoffrey Kendrick, Head of Foreign Exchange and Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered Bank, pointed out in a report on the 31st that the SEC did not consider ETH listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges as securities in previous enforcement actions, and the fact that CME also launched ETH futures makes the approval of a spot ETF expected.

Details on SEC's securities determination criteria, issuing team discussing technology, token supply ownership, and designing deflation mechanisms are all factors

Reason 2: SEC rejects Grayscale's transition fearing further lawsuits

Geoffrey Kendrick mentioned that Grayscale also has an ETH trust fund that is trying to transition to a spot ETF, and if the application is rejected, they may appeal again.

He stated:

We believe the SEC has no reason to view ETH differently from how CME and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange do.

Read more about the SEC's logic loophole! Why the court finds SEC's rejection of Grayscale's spot ETF application unreasonable

Bullish on ETH gradually rising, BTC could reach $200,000

Kendrick remains optimistic about the price trends of cryptocurrencies, stating that a stable Bitcoin spot ETF will gradually boost the price of Bitcoin and is expected to attract $500-1,000 billion in inflows this year, potentially reaching $100,000 by the end of the year and $200,000 by the end of 2025.

Comparing to the launch of the gold ETF, Standard Chartered analyst predicts Bitcoin will reach $200,000 by 2025

He mentioned that after the launch of the ETH spot ETF, there is no significant selling pressure compared to Bitcoin. This is mainly because the scale of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust Fund is not large, and FTX also holds a lower quota of Grayscale ETH Trust.

Staking yield ETF will also be listed

Lastly, Kendrick pointed out that an ETH spot ETF covering staking yields may appear after May 23. Only spot ETFs replicating ETH's volatility will be approved on the 23rd, he stated:

Both types of ETFs exist in Europe, and the 21Shares Ethereum Staking ETP AETH is the largest ETF that includes staking yield. However, due to the higher fees of AETH, the yield from staking is offset.