The anticipated green light for spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) might face delays beyond their final decision deadline in May.
Robby Greenfield, CEO of Umoja, a smart money protocol, highlighted to Cointelegraph the challenges large financial institutions face due to a lack of a clear strategy towards these ETFs.
He pointed out, “What makes it difficult for institutions to position themselves advantageously with Bitcoin, Ether and cryptocurrencies generally is that they can’t facilitate the same market manipulating functions as with previous commodities.
“You can’t create paper Bitcoin like you can create paper gold.” Several prominent firms, including BlackRock, Grayscale, and Fidelity, are in the race to launch an Ether ETF.
Despite these efforts, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart anticipates a rejection of the current Ether ETF applications in late May, referencing a March 19 post on X.
This expectation follows the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent postponement of its decision on the Hashdex and ARK 21Shares spot Ether ETFs, with a final verdict due by late May.
The unique challenges posed by the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies like Ether complicate the development of institutional strategies for ETFs, though Greenfield believes approval is inevitable.
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He asserts, “Whether it gets approved in May or in December, it’s inevitable… I wouldn’t understand why it wouldn’t be approved, particularly given that even the SEC’s perspective on Ether has been increasingly one of it being a commodity rather than a security.”
The SEC has set specific deadlines for the decision on applications from various companies, ranging from May 23 to August 7.
Moreover, the hesitance of large institutional players to dive into decentralized finance (DeFi) stems from infrastructure inadequacies, which also deter traditional retail investor participation.
Greenfield emphasizes the need for more accessible investment strategies and infrastructure to bridge this gap, especially for retail investors who, despite owning a significant portion of global assets under management, face limited wealth creation opportunities.
To this end, Umoja has raised an additional $2 million, bringing its total seed funding to $4 million, aiming to democratize access to asset management strategies.
Greenfield underscores the importance of catering to retail investors, who are projected to hold a larger share of global assets in the coming years, according to World Economic Forum estimates.
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