S&P Global on the potential for spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to gain approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "as early as May this year".

Main points from S&P, noting a key risk:

  • An increase in ether staking ETFs could affect the mix of validators participating in the Ethereum network's consensus mechanism. The participation of institutional custodians could reduce the current concentration on the Lido decentralized staking protocol. However, it may also introduce new concentration risk, particularly if a single entity is chosen to stake the bulk of ether included in these ETFs.
  • The effect of U.S. spot ether ETFs on concentration risk, be it positive or negative, could be significant, which makes constant monitoring of concentration risk even more important.

Here is the piece on the report from the analysts:

eth etf update 22 February 2024 2