• Political blowback for approving BTC ETFs could lead to the SEC reconsidering its stance.
• The market was hopeful of approvals in May.

With the official greenlighting of spot Bitcoin [BTC] ETFs, the digital assets market was looking forward to a similar outcome for the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum [ETH].

However, amidst a rather upbeat mood, a pessimistic forecast surfaced, casting doubts in the minds of market observers.

ETH ETF approvals dicey?

Chief Legal Officer of venture fund Variant, Jake Chervinsky, said in an X (formerly Twitter) post that he is a “lot less confident” about an ETH ETF approval this year.

The crypto lawyer, recognized for his informed takes on legal and regulatory events concerning cryptocurrencies, cited potential political repercussions as a factor in lowering the odds of approval.

“The SEC got a ton of political blowback for approving BTC ETFs, even though the court basically forced it to. Now animal spirits are in control of the market, and an ETH ETF would only add to that.”

The politics of it all

Recall that U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren had fiercely criticized the SEC’s decision to approve spot Bitcoin ETFs.

In an X post on the day that the ETFs were cleared for trading in the U.S., Warren said,

“If the SEC is going to let crypto burrow even deeper into our financial system, then it’s more urgent than ever that crypto follow basic anti-money laundering rules.”

Interestingly, the SEC Chair Gary Gensler, a Democrat, sided with two SEC commissioners from the Republican Party, to hand over a 3:2 vote in favor of the ETFs.

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Just like Bitcoin spot ETFs, titans of the U.S. financial market like BlackRock and Grayscale have expressed their interest in spot Ethereum ETFs.

British multinational bank Standard Chartered had predicted an approval by the 23rd of May, the final deadline for the first list of ETF applications.

The team behind the forecast had stated that the path to approval would be pretty much like that of Bitcoin, with the SEC dilly-dallying until eventually giving the go-ahead.