21Shares president ‘less bearish’ than Cathie Wood on ether ETF approval

SEC has “less to look at” in considering spot ether ETFs given their similarities to the approved BTC funds, according to 21Shares’ Ophelia Snyder

share

Executives at two of the issuers jointly looking to launch a spot ether ETF have differing views on whether such funds will gain near-term approval. 

Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood said this week during a podcast with Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz that “the probability is probably going down” for the Ark 21Shares Ethereum ETF, and other similar products, to be approved in May. 

Industry watchers expect the Securities and Exchange Commission to rule on spot ether proposals on or around May 23 — the date when the regulator’s 240-day clock to decide on the first such applications expires.  

“One of the tell-tale signs for bitcoin that something was gonna happen with the spot bitcoin ETF was the fact that we were communicating with the SEC,” Wood said. “I just think that the SEC is still biding its time, maybe studying the issues.”

Read more: Ether ETFs coming in May? Here’s why many are bearish

The SEC approved 10 spot bitcoin ETFs in January — the first products of their kind to hit the US market. 

Ark Invest partnered with European crypto ETP specialist 21Shares to launch one of those BTC funds. That ETF currently has roughly $3 billion in assets under management, the fourth-most in the segment behind Grayscale Investments, BlackRock and Fidelity.  

21Shares co-founder Ophelia Snyder noted the main reason that bitcoin ETFs were approved: a Grayscale legal victory over the SEC last year. Judges ruled in an August decision that the SEC allowing bitcoin futures ETFs, but blocking the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) from becoming an ETF, was “arbitrary and capricious.”

The SEC allowed ETFs that hold ether futures contracts to start trading in October.

Given “how fresh most of the documentation is,” Snyder told Yanowitz she is less bearish than Wood and others around the chance of spot ether ETFs gaining approval soon.    

“There are not a lot of differences between these filings for Ethereum and the filings for bitcoin,” the 21Shares executive noted. “They’re the same structure, the same custodians, the same disclosures. It’s very internally consistent. That means there’s less to look at.” 

Still, Wood said she believes the language in proposals around staking the planned funds’ assets has been “a sticking point” for the SEC. 

Staking ether is the process of depositing ETH to help secure the Ethereum blockchain — and earning yield on that ETH for doing so.

An amended proposal filed by Ark and 21Shares last month said the sponsor “may, from time to time, stake a portion of the trust’s assets through one or more trusted staking providers.” Fidelity and Grayscale have made similar additions to their ether ETF applications.

Read more: Ark 21Shares amends spot ether ETF proposal to include staking language

Bitwise filed for a spot ether ETF Thursday, though its proposal did not include details about the fund potentially staking its assets. 

Marshall Beard, chief operating officer at Gemini — a custodian for VanEck’s spot bitcoin ETF and in discussions related to the proposed ETH funds — previously told Blockworks he believes spot ether ETFs that stake assets are “not going to be version one.”

ETF.com senior analyst Sumit Roy argued that staking is a feature that makes ether look more like a security, “which the SEC won’t look favorably upon,” he noted.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is another issuer with a spot ether ETF proposal in front of the SEC. The company’s CEO, Larry Fink, noted during a Thursday interview with Fox Business News that the designation of ether as a security or commodity might not have a big impact on whether such a fund gets greenlit.

When asked directly during the interview whether BlackRock could launch a spot ether ETF even if ETH is labeled a security, Fink added: “I think so, yeah.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

P2P Foundation founder Michel Bauwens revealed this week that Satoshi wrote him over email in the early days of Bitcoin

article-image

A Blockworks Research report looked at how Hyperliquid has maintained its hype and how it can build out its businesses

article-image

Dragonfly’s Rob Hadick discussed how the firm is approaching investments in the current market

article-image

The asset surged over the past seven days to reach its highest-ever weekly close on the SOL/ETH pair

article-image

Industry watchers note that SOL ETFs have attracted a fraction of the demand for bitcoin and ether ETFs

article-image

Tariff swings impact stock market and company outlooks, with Apple and NVidia likely to be affected by China tariffs