SEC will classify Ether as security, deny spot Ether ETFs — Michael Saylor
MicroStrategy executive chair Michael Saylor speculated that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will deny listing and trading of spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds.
Speaking at MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin For Corporations conference on May 1, Saylor said the SEC would label ETH as a crypto asset security under its regulatory purview and not a commodity under the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to the MicroStrategy executive, the SEC could follow by treating tokens including BNB, Solana (SOL), XRP and Cardano (ADA) as “crypto asset securit[ies] unregistered.”
“None of [these tokens] will ever be wrapped by a spot ETF, none of them will be accepted by Wall Street, none of them will be accepted by mainstream institutional investors as crypto assets,” said Saylor.
Saylor’s remarks came as many experts expressed concerns about whether the SEC will approve the listing and trading of spot Ether ETFs on U.S. exchanges. The first significant deadlines for ETF applications from VanEck and ARK Invest will be May 23 and May 24, respectively.
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Unredacted portions of a lawsuit filed by Consensys alleged that the SEC launched an investigation into Ether as security as early as March 2023. SEC Chair Gary Gensler avoided answering direct questions on whether Ether was a security in an April 2023 hearing, despite previous statements suggesting otherwise.
Saylor is an outspoken proponent of BTC and a leading force behind MicroStrategy acquiring the cryptocurrency as a reserve asset. As of April 30, the firm held 214,400 BTC — worth more than $13 billion at the time of publication.
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