Grayscale Withdraws “Trojan Horse” Ethereum Futures ETF

Grayscale, the leading cryptocurrency asset manager, has withdrawn its 19b-4 filing for an Ethereum futures exchange-traded fund.  

According to James Seyffart, one of the leading ETF analysts, this was essentially a "Trojan horse" filing since it was supposed to create the same circumstances that allowed Grayscale to win the GBTC lawsuit.

Seyffart seems to be perplexed by Grayscale's recent move. "In my mind might as well make the SEC write up an approval or denial for an ETH futures ETF and go from there?" he suggested. 

The analyst added that Grayscale might have had a conversation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which prompted their decision to withdraw. 

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As reported by U.Today, Nete Geraci predicted that Grayscale would take the SEC to court again if it were to deny its spot Ethereum ETF application. 

However, Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst, has noted that the recent move is a good sign that Grayscale is not going to pursue another lawsuit against the agency. 

Earlier this week, the SEC delayed its decision on the Ethereum ETF proposal by Invesco Galaxy.

The agency is widely expected to reject Ethereum ETF proposals from ARK and VanEck this month. The ETFs are expected to be rejected due to purely technical reasons, but prior reports suggest that Ether's murky legal status and political pressure are the key factors that have prevented the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs. 

Ether is down 3.6% over the past 24 hours, according to data provided by CoinGecko.