ARK Invest CEO and CIO Cathie Wood claimed on May 29 that the US SEC approved the Ethereum ETF for political reasons.
In Coindesk’s Consensus 2024, Wood identified two circumstances that he suspects contributed to the SEC’s shift in sentiment. First, she said the House’s recent passage of FIT21 defined cryptocurrencies as an election issue.
Second, she said former US President Donald Trump was “much more familiar with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies” around the time he made his decision on the spot ETH ETF.
Trump began accepting campaign donations in cryptocurrency during endorsement week, which Wood believes has caught the attention of Joe Biden’s administration.
Samsung Electronics suddenly changed its position
Wood said the U.S. SEC “will never approve” the various spot ETH ETFs pending before suddenly changing its stance.
If the SEC had approved the funds in the usual way, Ark and other issuers would have faced questions from the agency. But that’s not the case. Wood said:
“No one received any questions from the SEC in advance.”
However, on May 23, the SEC approved a rule change that would allow the listing and trading of eight spot ETH ETF funds, including the joint offering of Ark and 21 Shares.
Wood expressed mixed opinions on whether other cryptocurrency ETFs could also receive approval following the ETF’s approval. She said Wirehouses could accept ETFs linked to major cryptocurrencies, including Solana, but Memecoin funds were unlikely.
Bukele’s El Salvador Policy
The Ark Invest CEO also commented on El Salvador, praising the country’s Bitcoin policy after recently meeting with President Nayib Bukele.
Wood said Bukele’s handling of Bitcoin, AI and other areas could expand El Salvador’s GDP tenfold during his next five-year term. She described Bitcoin and AI as “two of the biggest economic and technological revolutions in history.”
She added:
“The President also jumped on the idea of introducing ARK Educate’s curriculum on technologically enabled innovations to schools in El Salvador.”
The curriculum includes blockchain, AI, robotics, energy storage, and multinomics.
President Bukele is known for his various cryptocurrency policies. The government of El Salvador holds at least 5,700 BTC, has implemented a plan to mine BTC and generate revenue from local businesses, and has extended a citizenship offer to Bitcoin investors.