The CEO of Umoja, Robby Greenfield, has voiced concerns regarding major financial institutions’ internal strategies, suggesting that these deficiencies could lead to deferred approvals for Ethereum-based Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). The delay may extend past the anticipated May deadline. Contending for the ETF spot are notable firms such as BlackRock, Grayscale, Fidelity, and several others.
Ethereum ETF Applications Under Review
Bloomberg’s ETF analyst James Seyffart recently forecasted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might reject current Ethereum ETF applications by the end of May. The SEC has already pushed back its verdict on Hashdex and ARK 21Shares’ Ether ETF proposals. These funds have reached their final decision stage, with deadlines set for the end of May.
Cryptocurrency’s decentralized essence poses challenges for institutional strategy formulation for ETFs. Greenfield predicts an approval delay but remains certain of its eventuality, emphasizing the SEC’s view of Ethereum as increasingly akin to a commodity, which should favor ETF approval.
Strategic Investment and DeFi
Greenfield has highlighted that major players’ reluctance to invest in decentralized finance (DeFi) stems from infrastructure inadequacies, discouraging both institutional and traditional individual investor engagement. He advocates for better user experiences and simpler infrastructures to attract real individual investors into the DeFi sector.
The Umoja CEO also underlined the importance of individual access to sophisticated investment strategies, given that individual investors—though holding a significant portion of managed global assets—have limited opportunities in asset management. In response, Umoja has doubled its seed funding to enhance individual investor access to asset management strategies. The World Economic Forum’s data shows that individual investors, who made up 52% of managed assets in 2021, are likely to control a greater share by 2030.