Spot ETH ETFs approved, crypto bill passes US House, and more: Hodler’s Digest, May 19-25

U.S. SEC approves spot Ether ETFs, FIT21 crypto bill goes to the Senate, and Sam Bankman-Fried held in Oklahoma.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the regulatory green light to spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States on May 23. The approval reaches filings from major firms such as VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, and Bitwise. Issuers must still obtain SEC approval for their S-1 registration statements before the ETFs can officially begin trading. The SEC had previously asked applicants to expedite filings on May 20, with the removal of staking being the most notable amendment seen. The approval was considered an implicit recognition from the SEC that Ether is not a security, according to industry pundits.

The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 22. The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future is uncertain, facing opposition from Senator Elizabeth Warren. FIT21 proposes giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) primary control over cryptocurrencies, which the industry views as a more lenient regulator compared to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC would still regulate cryptocurrencies that arent sufficiently decentralized, but FIT21 introduces a mechanism for cryptocurrencies classified as securities to be sold as commodities. The Biden administration and the SECs Chair, Gary Gensler, have both issued statements opposing the regulation.

Former FTX CEO Sam SBF Bankman-Fried is no longer incarcerated in New York or California, where his parents own a home according to prison records, hes in Oklahoma. As of May 23, inmate records for the Federal Bureau of Prisons showed that Bankman-Fried was being held at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. The facility confines inmates on a short-term basis for transfers within the prison system. The transfer appeared to have happened despite Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recommending SBF stay at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn.

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