Securities and Exchange Commission staff told cryptocurrency exchanges on Monday the agency is "leaning" towards approving spot ether ETFs, according to a report in Barron's, which cited anonymous sources.

"What changed is that SEC staff on Monday told exchanges where the products would list that it is leaning toward approving them, according to people familiar with the matter," according to Barron's. "The agency provided comments on the applications that, if resolved in time, could result in approvals as soon as this week."

On Monday, news that the SEC had perhaps changed its tune regarding spot ether ETFs shook the world of crypto and caused the price of ETH to surge. Bloomberg ETF analysts were the first to suggest that the U.S. government might do an about-face on the Ethereum-based …