On May 23, 2024, the cryptocurrency world witnessed a landmark moment when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved eight applications to list Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), bringing the second-largest cryptocurrency closer to mainstream financial markets. This decision, greenlighting ETFs from industry giants like BlackRock and Fidelity alongside six other issuers, marked a significant step in legitimizing Ethereum as an investable asset for traditional portfolios. On this day, the SEC’s approval of the 19b-4 forms—rule changes filed by exchanges like Nasdaq, NYSE, and CBOE—cleared a critical hurdle, setting the stage for these ETFs to eventually trade on U.S. exchanges and offer investors direct exposure to Ether’s spot price without needing to own the digital asset itself.
The atmosphere on May 23 was charged with surprise and celebration, as the crypto industry had braced for rejection just days earlier. The SEC’s decision came after months of uncertainty, with issuers like BlackRock (iShares Ethereum Trust), Fidelity (Fidelity Ethereum Fund), VanEck, ARK 21Shares, Grayscale (Ethereum Trust), Invesco Galaxy, Bitwise, and Franklin Templeton awaiting a verdict. The approval process kicked into high gear that week when, on May 20, the SEC abruptly asked exchanges to update their filings on an accelerated basis—a move that stunned analysts who’d pegged the odds of approval at less than 30%. By Thursday, May 23, the agency finalized its review, with the orders posted online after markets closed, confirming the eight ETFs had passed muster. Crypto Twitter exploded with reactions—Bloomberg’s James Seyffart tweeted, “BOOM!! APPROVED!”—while Ethereum’s price jumped 2% to $3,850, reflecting the market’s elation.
The day’s events unfolded against a backdrop of regulatory tension and legal pressure. Earlier that year, the SEC had approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 10, following a court ruling that forced its hand after Grayscale sued over a rejected Bitcoin ETF conversion. On May 23, Ethereum’s approval bore similar fingerprints: the SEC cited the correlation between Ether’s spot market and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Ether futures, launched in 2021, as justification. The agency argued this link—showing over 90% price alignment at one-minute intervals from October 2021 to March 2024—enabled sufficient surveillance to deter fraud, a key sticking point in past rejections. The filings classified the ETFs as “Commodity-Based Trust Shares,” sidestepping debates about whether Ether was a security, a question the SEC had probed since Ethereum’s 2022 shift to proof-of-stake. For issuers, the day was a scramble—BlackRock and Fidelity, managing trillions in assets, finalized updates to their prospectuses, eyeing a blockbuster launch once S-1 registration statements cleared.
In the crypto community, May 23 felt like a victory lap after a rollercoaster of doubt. On Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency, users posted memes of SEC Chair Gary Gensler reluctantly signing off, while Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stayed silent, letting the market’s roar speak for itself. Industry players gathered virtually—Coinbase, a custodian for several ETFs, hailed it as “a win for digital assets,” while Grayscale, converting its $9 billion Ethereum Trust, toasted “bringing Ethereum further into the U.S. regulatory perimeter.” The approved ETFs promised a simple pitch: hold Ether directly, track its price, and trade on regulated exchanges like stocks—no wallets, no private keys. Yet, a catch emerged: none could stake their Ether for yield, a concession to SEC concerns about staking as a potential securities offering, leaving some investors grumbling on forums like Discord about missed returns.
May 23, 2024, was a day of quiet bureaucracy and loud implications. The SEC’s orders, dryly worded and spanning dozens of pages, belied their weight—eight ETFs from titans like BlackRock (with $10 trillion in assets) and Fidelity (over $4 trillion) now had the green light to bridge Wall Street and Ethereum’s $450 billion market cap. Trading wouldn’t start immediately; the S-1 approvals loomed weeks or months away, with July 23 later set as the debut. But on this day, the focus was triumph: Ethereum, born in 2015 as a platform for smart contracts, had won a seat at the traditional finance table. As the sun set, miners and nodes kept the blockchain humming at 15 transactions per second, oblivious to the regulatory milestone that had just redefined their native coin’s place in the world.
