Crypto investors reveal a concern with Matt Kolf's CEO position at Van Eck doubting approval of ETF

VanEck CEO Jan van Eck raised concern about the SEC's approval of spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in May.

In a recent CNBC interview on April 9, the chairman of the multibillion-dollar investment firm stated that his company's spot Ethereum ETF application would likely be denied. VanEck and ARK Invest, led by Cathie Wood, were among the first applicants for spot Ethereum ETFs in the United States. Both corporations are still waiting for the SEC's final verdict, which is scheduled for May 23 and May 24, respectively.

Van Eck: Regulatory Feedback Absence

Van Eck gave insights into the regulatory process, emphasizing that regulators frequently provide feedback on ETF applications. In the Ethereum scenario, there has been a notable absence of engagement from regulators. CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti shared a similar pessimistic view, indicating no imminent approvals.

The SEC has refrained from commenting on seven pending applications for spot Ethereum ETFs, diminishing the probability of ETF approval in May. Analysts, including Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, have observed the regulator's radio silence on potential fund issuers.

Simultaneously, the SEC has begun a three-week comment period on three Ethereum spot ETF proposals filed earlier this month by Grayscale Investments, Fidelity, and Bitwise. This announcement follows the SEC's discussions in March about the Ethereum spot ETF suggested by asset managers Grayscale Investments and Coinbase.

VanEck 's ETH ETF comes to US$7 worth of applications including Grayscale, Bloomberg, or even Goldman Sachs. Balchunas, who was leaning toward institutional backing of 70% probability as of May 7th, stands at 35% chance currently. Upon this, he, too, stated Van Eck's argument and gave value to the SEC's point of view as well as suggested that their input could be constructive.

ETF analyst James Seyffart was quoted saying that the absence of an engagement process on such a sensitive matter which had attracted attention was cause for concern, as clearly, the SEC did not see this as a matter of urgency.

The spot bitcoin ETFs experience capital outflow as their investment grows. In the USA, stock Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs have shifted the investor mood, especially from net inflows experienced from Monday to Tuesday and the last of the week whose inflow was a fantastic US$1 billion. The decision by Grayscale's GBTC spot ETF to offer non-committal shares on Monday led to the accumulation of net outflows of over US$303 million. Further cross-outflows of US$154 million were reported on Tuesday.
However, despite a decline in GBTC, funds of other Bitcoin ETFs on the market attracted the same amount of capital to the new asset class during the same period. And that Bitwise Bitcoin ETF and iShares ETF led the flowering. Living up to its name, VanEck's spot Bitcoin ETF HODL is the fifth largest among these ten funds (and that's before GrayScale's twelve funds). The given data by Farside Investors reveals that their HODL fund has acquired 461.7 million dollars.

ETF was a vital point on which the bull pitched, mentioning Bitcoin as an asset that gained a lot of traction recently, thereby having its ETFs on the rise and citing the fact that most of the investors currently do not know anything about the crypto.