The US Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) decision on Ethereum may be purely “political”.
According to The Block, the SEC had no intention of approving spot Ethereum ETFs until two weeks ago. However, earlier this week, exchanges and issuers were instructed to update their filings.
“This shows that it's purely political,” an anonymous source said.
Before ETFs can be established, 19b-4 and then S-1 documents will need to be approved. The 19b-4 documents are reviewed by the SEC's division of trading and markets, while the S-1 documents are reviewed by the agency's division of corporate finance.
“The SEC is not even coordinated internally, so the decision could be purely political,” said a person familiar with the matter.
According to some analysts, the SEC's decision was prompted by the upcoming presidential election. Presidential candidate Donald Trump solicited votes from cryptocurrency supporters, saying that his opponent Joe Biden did not know about cryptocurrencies.
“Democrats desperately need the votes of young voters,” said one commentator. “Voters are not only telling politicians about the importance of crypto, they are also demanding that the space be regulated,” said Ji Kim, director of the Crypto Innovation Council's legal division.
