Bitcoin ETF issuers say SEC will reject ether exchange-traded funds

PARIS — Issuers of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds on Tuesday say the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is unlikely to approve such a product for the cryptocurrency ether.

The regulator has a late-May deadline to conclude its review on an ether ETF. That comes after the SEC in March delayed its original deadline for a decision on the ether ETF application.

Companies ranging from BlackRock to Fidelity and VanEck, which issued spot bitcoin ETFs this year, have been waiting for approval for an ether product.

Some issuers are not confident that the SEC will green light the ether applications.

"We were the first to file as well for Ethereum in the U.S., and we and [Ark Invest CEO] Cathy Wood, are kind of the first in line for May, I guess, to probably be rejected," VanEck CEO Jan Van Eck told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal at the Paris Blockchain Week crypto event in Paris, France.

Ark Invest was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

"The way the legal process goes is the regulators will give you comments on your application, and that happened for weeks and weeks before the Bitcoin ETFs — and right now, pins are dropping as far as Ethereum is concerned," Van Eck added.

Enthusiasm has been mounting among the crypto community for an ether ETF, ever since the SEC approved the first spot bitcoin ETFs in January.

The ether price has been climbing this past week on the back of hopes that the SEC will approve an ether-backed ETF.

The token is up about 10% in the last seven days, according to CoinGecko data.

However, the SEC has signaled that it might not be so willing to approve such an investment product.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has previously stressed that "the vast majority of crypto assets are investment contracts