SEC should let VanEck launch its ether ETF first, firm exec says

Firm’s head of crypto research Matthew Sigel urges the agency to “respect the queue” ahead of anticipated decision

article-image

VanEck crypto research head Matthew Sigel | DAS 2022 New York by Blockworks

share

VanEck crypto research head Matthew Sigel has a message for the Securities and Exchange Commission: Let the first firm to file for an ether ETF be the first to launch.

That would be (you guessed it) VanEck. 

A New York-based fund group that manages roughly $100 billion in assets, VanEck first filed to launch a spot ether ETF in the US in 2021.

It re-upped its bid to launch such a product in September 2023. The SEC’s 240-day period to rule on the fund expires on May 23, a day ahead of the agency’s deadline to rule on a similar proposal by Ark Invest and 21Shares.

Others looking to launch such funds include BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, Invesco and Hashdex.

SEC engagement with stock exchanges and fund issuers ramped up earlier this week — spurring optimism around possible ether ETF approval. VanEck said in a Tuesday X post that “the SEC comments are coming in.”

Read more: Politics, amendments, staking: Making sense of the ether ETF developments 

VanEck was the first to file our S-1 for this spot ethereum ETF and we fully expect to get our comments back first and go first,” Sigel said during a X Space Wednesday. 

He added: “A line ensures fairness…so we would urge the SEC to respect the queue.”

Loading Tweet..

An SEC spokesperson has declined to comment on the ether ETF proposals.

The US securities regulator allowed 10 US spot bitcoin ETFs to launch on the same day in January.

Four months later, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has substantially more assets than any other competing product — aside from the converted Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC). IBIT and GBTC have roughly $19 billion and $20 billion in assets, respectively. 

The VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL), meanwhile, manages about $700 million in assets. 

This time around, the SEC should allow VanEck to respond to the agency’s comments first, Sigel argued. He added that the proposed VanEck Ethereum Trust should then be the first to hit the market.

“I just have a fundamental issue with…lining everyone up to go at the same time; that’s never how the process has worked,” Sigel said. “This administration seems to like to micromanage how the pie is divided up and in the process anoint winners — typically large incumbents — and yeah, we’ve got a problem with that.”

The stock exchanges that would list the planned ether ETFs amended what are known as 19b-4 documents on Tuesday.

Read more: Proposed ether ETFs would not stake their ETH, new filings clarify

Industry watchers have noted that even if the SEC approves those 19b-4 proposals, launches would likely not follow immediately. 

Before any such funds would be allowed to start trading, the securities regulator would also have to greenlight the S-1 registration statements filed by VanEck and the other issuers — a process some say could take weeks.


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

Unlocked by Template (7).png

Research

Union’s improvements upon Tendermint consensus through CometBLS, coupled with ZK proving through Galois, allow for a broadly scalable, cost efficient, and low latency IBC implementation that is feasibly scalable across every existing blockchain, virtual machine and runtime. The implementation offers modular crosschain interoperability without the need for trusted intermediaries.  

article-image

Kraken’s chief security officer Nick Percoco said the exchange turned the tables on a North Korean hacker

article-image

Or is it approximately the least cypherpunk thing we could do?

article-image

Over 20% of SOL-USD swap volume goes through SolFi

article-image

CEO Vlad Tenev calls expected clarity on listing crypto asset securities “a big opportunity”

article-image

Big Tech pulled US indexes back into the green Thursday, as investors waited for two more Mag 7 first-quarter reports after the bell

article-image

Charts and takeaways from Tuesday’s jobs report and Wednesday’s GDP print, as the economy digests the tariff war