The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a rule change that will enable large asset managers to issue spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The decision by the Wall Street regulator comes less than six months after spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs were approved for the American market.
Bitcoin ETFs, which enable investors to track the price movements of the cryptocurrency without holding the asset in a digital wallet, have proven to be a big success for fund managers.
Since January, net inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs have surpassed $12 billion U.S.
After markets closed on May 23, the SEC effectively approved a proposed spot Ethereum ETF by investment firm VanEck.
Several other companies also have Ethereum ETF applications before the SEC, including Ark Invest, BlackRock (BLK), Bitwise and Galaxy Digital.
The price of Ethereum rose 2% on news of the ETF approval. That follows a more than 20% price surge earlier in the week in anticipation of the SEC decision.
Ethereum ETFs are expected to be smaller in scope than the Bitcoin funds. Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
The price of Ethereum has risen nearly 60% this year and currently trades at $3,700 U.S. per token.
