Cboe issued a revised demand ETF application form, the industry renewed hopes for approval

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may approve an important application related to the upcoming launch of a spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange traded fund (ETF), and the situation appears to be progressing. Cboe, an exchange associated with issuers of five potential spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has issued its revised 19b-4 application form in response to feedback from the regulator. The applicants include Fidelity, VanEck, Invesco/Galaxy, Ark/21Shares and Franklin Templeton.

The exchanges supporting the individual applicants filed the revised form with the SEC earlier on Tuesday, two people familiar with the situation told CoinDesk. Officials at the SEC asked exchanges to resubmit documents that use generic comments, meaning all documents use the same wording, a source told CoinDesk. Over the course of Monday and Tuesday, several people told CoinDesk that SEC officials did not explicitly say they were approving the applications, but the feedback was still considered important. Final approval of these applications is still not assured, but the regulator's request for amendments to Form 19b-4 suggests progress is being made. One of the sources told CoinDesk that they expect multiple approvals within the week.

     While Form 19b-4 could be approved as early as this Thursday - when the first filing by VanEck and Cboe faces a deadline - the spot Ethereum ETF cannot launch until the SEC also approves the S-1 form filed by the issuers themselves. At present, there appears to be less progress in this regard than on Form 19b-4. However, some applicants have begun to amend their S-1 forms. It appears that the SEC will not allow issuers to pledge potential ETFs, something that several applicants, including Grayscale and Fidelity, are hoping to do. On Tuesday, the two asset managers filed amended S-1 registration statements that removed the pledge from their documents.

According to CoinGecko, Ethereum prices were trading around at press time, up 600 from the past hour, when optimism about ETF approval first surfaced.