Cathie Wood says ETH ETF approvals were political, praises El Salvador’s BTC approach

ARK Invest CEO and CIO Cathie Wood asserted on May 29 that the US SEC greenlit spot Ethereum ETFs for political reasons.

At Coindesk’s Consensus 2024, Wood identified two developments that arguably influenced the SEC’s changing sentiment. First, she said the House’s recent passing of FIT21 defined crypto as an election issue.

Secondly, she said that former US President Donald Trump became “much more cozy with Bitcoin and crypto” around the time of the decision on spot ETH ETFs.

Trump began to accept campaign donations in crypto during the week of the approvals, which Wood believes attracted the attention of Joe Biden’s administration.

SEC changed stance suddenly

Wood said that the US SEC was “absolutely not” going to approve various pending spot ETH ETFs before its sudden shift in stance.

If the SEC had approved funds in the typical manner, Ark and other issuers would have received questions from the agency, which was not the case. Wood said:

 “No one was getting questions from the SEC beforehand.”

However, on May 23, the SEC approved rule changes to permit the listing and trading of eight spot ETH ETF funds, including Ark and 21 Shares’ joint offering.

Wood expressed mixed opinions on whether other crypto ETFs could gain approval following the approval of ETFs. She said wirehouses could accept ETFs involving major cryptos, including Solana, while memecoin funds are unlikely.

Bukele’s El Salvador policies

The Ark Invest CEO also recently commented on El Salvador, praising its Bitcoin policies after meeting President Nayib Bukele.

Wood said Bukele’s treatment of Bitcoin, AI, and other areas could scale El Salvador’s GDP tenfold during his next five-year term. She described Bitcoin and AI as “two of the biggest economic and technology revolutions in history.”

She added:

“The President also leaped at the idea of introducing ARK Educate’s curriculum on technologically enabled innovation… to schools in El Salvador.”

The curriculum includes blockchain, AI, robotics, energy storage, and multinomics.

President Bukele is known for his various crypto policies. The El Salvador government holds at least 5,700 BTC, has implemented plans to generate income from BTC mining and local businesses, and has extended a citizenship offer for Bitcoin investors.

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