The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to delay its ruling on BlackRock’s plan to add staking to its iShares Ethereum Trust.
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, and the proposed product would allow investors to gain exposure to Ethereum while also benefiting from staking rewards. However, The SEC has now set a new date of October 30 to either approve or reject this change, giving itself more time to review.
“The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to take action on the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider the proposal and the issues raised.” SEC said in the release.
The filing for the change was first submitted by Nasdaq in July, and on August 1 the proposal was published in the Federal Register, which officially started the review period. The first review window was set to expire on September 15, but the SEC decided to extend it before the time ended.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time the commission has delayed such a decision. Other filings that also plan to add staking to Ethereum exchange-traded funds have faced the same outcome.
For instance, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) has a proposal for the 21Shares Ethereum ETF, which must be decided on by October 23. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has a similar plan for Grayscale’s Ethereum ETF, with its final date coming on October 29.
Since BlackRock’s deadline is October 30, all three proposals will be decided around the same week, and the SEC could even approve them together.
Moreover, the possibility of staking approval has become a major talk for the market. Ethereum’s price has risen in recent months, and many people believe the hope of staking being added to ETFs is one of the reasons. The SEC has already made it clear in the past that staking by itself is not a security, which gives supporters more confidence.
Another example is the REX-Osprey Solana ETF, which was the first Solana fund and already included staking when it launched. This has given the market a case to look at while waiting for the Ethereum decision. For now, the countdown is on for late October, when the SEC must finally make a ruling.
