Bloomberg ETF analyst: SEC's strategic delay is to avoid any party gaining a first-mover advantage

On December 16th, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart reiterated during an interview on The Scoop podcast that he believes a Bitcoin spot ETF is likely to be approved before January 10th next year. It has been reported that Seyffart has held this belief since October of this year, with a 90% chance of approval before January 10th next year. This is because the ETF applications from Ark and 21Shares (submitted in April, earlier than BlackRock) have reached their final deadline. The SEC has been strategically delaying to arrange various applications or at least approve some simultaneously to avoid giving one company a first-mover advantage. However, Grayscale's ETF application is currently different from others and may not be approved at the same time initially.

Regarding Ethereum spot ETF-related issues, Seyffart stated that Ethereum and Bitcoin are completely different. The SEC may emphasize the differences between Ethereum's current PoS (Proof-of-Stake) and Bitcoin's PoW (Proof-of-Work). If the SEC wants to halt this approval process, it may postpone its decision or assert that Ethereum is a security. But Seyffart believes that the SEC has implicitly accepted Ethereum as a commodity, so he thinks an Ethereum spot ETF is "more likely" to be approved by the end of May (the final deadlines for Ark, 21Shares, and VanEck).