The move from Grayscale comes shortly after it announced plans to launch three new ETF products.
In a surprising turn of events, two crypto asset managers, Grayscale Investments and Bitwise Asset Management, paused their plans to roll out Ether (ETH) futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In separate announcements, both companies cited the scrutiny of the US regulators among the reasons for making such a decision.
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On May 17, both companies submitted amendment fillings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In its filing, Grayscale requested to remove any mentions of Ether futures ETF. The change comes hot on the heels of Grayscale announcing intentions to introduce three novel ETF products.
The other two star products included a semi-spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF focusing on spot BTC market investments and a privacy-centered ETF investing in blockchain firms and digital assets prioritizing privacy.
The alteration to Grayscale's ETF application wasn't without precursor events. Recently, the SEC requested the asset manager to retract its Filecoin Trust application. The regulatory entity flagged that Filecoin (FIL), the trust's foundational asset, is classified as a security.
In a statement, Grayscale refuted the SEC's assertion, defending that the underlying asset doesn't fall under the security classification. The firm plans to "respond promptly to the SEC staff with an explanation of the legal basis for Grayscale’s position.”
In contrast, Bitwise stated that it has no intentions to "seek effectiveness of the fund and no securities of the fund was sold, or will be sold, pursuant to the above-mentioned post-effective amendment to the trust’s registration statement.”
