The chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission told senators in a budget hearing that the applications to run ether spot ETFs should be finished this summer.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said that the final approvals for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) trading Ethereum's ether (ETH) should be finished this summer, he told senators in a budget hearing on Thursday.

Gensler told a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee in a hearing justifying the market regulator's budget that the process is going smoothly after the initial approval of a group of ETFs. The agency had previously granted the initial round of applications but he said the final registration requirements – filings known as S-1s – are now being handled at the "staff level."

Once those filings are approved, the new ETFs can be listed, opening the wider markets to easy-to-trade funds that hold actual ether, much like the earlier establishment of bitcoin spot ETFs that hold (BTC).

When asked directly whether ETH is a commodity, Gensler didn't respond with a yes or no, maintaining the uncertain position his agency has held on that asset. At the same hearing, when asked whether it's a commodity, Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Rostin Behnam responded, "Yes."

Source: Jesse Hamilton – coindesk.com