Efe Nail Saltık 
The launch of the first spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US is “going smoothly,” said Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler.
Speaking at a Bloomberg conference on June 25, Gensler did not give a specific date for when the ETFs would be launched and avoided answering the question of whether they could be launched before the US elections.
“This is really about asset managers making full disclosure so that these registration statements can become valid,” he said. “What we have before us — and this is done at the staff level — are registration statements, disclosure statements. These explanations are really important. It is important for investors to make investment decisions.”
The SEC approved 19b-4 filings from eight ETF claimants on May 23, but asset managers are still filing their Form S-1s — the final filings the SEC must approve for trading to begin.
Some analysts predict that the SEC may approve the funds for trading, and they state that this approval could occur in the first week of July.
The US crypto industry has sought to make digital assets an election issue, spending millions of dollars following multiple enforcement actions from the SEC led by Gensler. Presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would end what he called President Joe Biden’s “war on crypto,” and billionaire investor Mark Cuban claimed Gensler could cost Biden the election.
When asked about Trump and Cuban’s comments, Gensler stated that he was not talking about the election.
“We have a pretty clear set of rules. “There is no inconsistency between crypto securities and securities laws,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are many people who are not in compliance with the law.”
Gensler claimed there were as many as 20,000 crypto tokens that were investment contracts or securities under US law and did not provide “proper disclosure” to American investors.
“This is an area where the leading lights from a few years ago were either in prison, about to go to prison or awaiting extradition,” he said. “We’re bringing these things before the courts, and those processes are going to be gamed because people who don’t follow the law are hurting the American people.”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse called Gensler’s comments “complete nonsense” and claimed that the SEC chairman “completely missed FTX.” “Gensler will cause Biden to lose the election,” Garlinghouse added.
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