The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved options trading for spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This decision was made during an “accelerated approval” process.
The SEC allowed Nasdaq ISE, LLC to trade options for the iShares Ethereum Trust. Additionally, it approved options trading for the Bitwise Ethereum ETF, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, and the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust through NYSE American LLC.
The SEC stated that the proposed rule changes met the necessary requirements of the Act and the rules for national securities exchanges. This includes compliance with Section 6(b)(5) of the Act.
The approval comes nearly a year after the SEC first approved spot Ethereum ETFs, which began trading in the summer. Since then, various firms have been eager to gain permission for options trading.
The SEC had previously approved spot bitcoin ETFs over a year ago and later allowed options trading for those products in 2024. Analysts had anticipated the SEC’s approval of spot Ethereum ETFs.
James Seyffart, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, noted this expectation in a post on X. Nate Geraci, president of the ETF Store, also mentioned that more ETF launches are likely to follow.
