The positioning of ether options for May's end-of-month expiry shows investors have a lack of confidence in the chances for an imminent approval of a spot ether exchange-traded fund and anticipate significant price swings, an analyst said.

May 23 marks the 240-day window for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to decide on a spot ether ETF proposal from VanEck. Following that, a decision on the ARK/21Shares filing is due by May 24 and a decision on Hashdex's proposal is expected by May 30.

In January, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart set the chances of a May approval at 60%, then dropped his expectations to 35%, but finally decided that the applications would ultimately be denied.

According to YouHodler Chief of Markets Ruslan Lienkha Lienkha, this growing doubt is …