Gary Gensler Provides Ethereum ETF Update While Criticizing ‘Highly Centralized’ Crypto Industry

Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), says the approval process for Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the spot market is “moving smoothly.”

In a new interview at the Bloomberg Invest Summit in New York, Gensler indicated that the SEC will give final approval to the ETH ETF applications, but did not provide a timeline.

He says the agency’s staff is in the process of reviewing the details of the required registration and disclosure statements for the ETH ETFs.

“I don’t know the timing, but it’s going smoothly. You can almost follow it publicly. You see these registrations…

And it’s really about getting the asset managers to make full disclosure so that those registration statements can go into effect and those attorneys know what that is. It’s something that our Corporation Finance department handles hundreds, if not thousands, of times throughout a person’s career. It functions smoothly. It is really up to the asset managers to provide the correct explanations.”

Bloomberg exchange-traded fund (ETF) expert Eric Balchunas recently said that ETH ETFS may be approved by July 2.

In the same interview, Gensler also criticized the crypto sector, calling it “very centralized.”

“Much of this field is highly centralized. It is not decentralized. That’s not what’s happening here. It’s highly centralized around a few platforms that also centralize and intermingle things that we wouldn’t allow anywhere else. And we don’t do that. The law does not allow you to trade against your clients and operate a so-called exchange and trade on the front and possibly also invest in an investment contract or security and then list and have the quote appear.

This is all happening potentially and we see some of the most important ones [ones who] Two years ago, if they were sitting on this stage, they would have filled a room much bigger than this one, now they’re in jail or they’re awaiting jail time.”

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