Connect with us

Published

on

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

PARIS — Issuers of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds on Tuesday say the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is unlikely to approve such a product for the cryptocurrency ether.

The regulator has a late-May deadline to conclude its review on an ether ETF. That comes after the SEC in March delayed its original deadline for a decision on the ether ETF application.

Companies ranging from BlackRock to Fidelity and VanEck, which issued spot bitcoin ETFs this year, have been waiting for approval for an ether product.

Some issuers are not confident that the SEC will green light the ether applications.

“We were the first to file as well for Ethereum in the U.S., and we and [Ark Invest CEO] Cathy Wood, are kind of the first in line for May, I guess, to probably be rejected,” VanEck CEO Jan Van Eck told CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal at the Paris Blockchain Week crypto event in Paris, France.

Bitcoin and gold 'moving in tandem,' VanEck CEO says

Ark Invest was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

“The way the legal process goes is the regulators will give you comments on your application, and that happened for weeks and weeks before the Bitcoin ETFs — and right now, pins are dropping as far as Ethereum is concerned,” Van Eck added.

Enthusiasm has been mounting among the crypto community for an ether ETF, ever since the SEC approved the first spot bitcoin ETFs in January. But the SEC has signaled that it might not be so willing to approve such an investment product.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has previously stressed that “the vast majority of crypto assets are investment contracts and thus subject to the federal securities laws,” in the SEC’s view.

This complicates matters for an ether ETF.

“We are observing the Ethereum decision very, very closely,” CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti told CNBC on Tuesday. “CoinShares was not in the race for the bitcoin ETF until three months before the approval, and we managed to qualify ourselves at the last minute.”

He was equally pessimistic over the odds of gaining such an approval in the short term.

CoinShares is not one of the companies in the running for an ether ETF in the U.S.

“I don’t see anything being approved this side of the year,” he noted, suggesting it may be difficult to gain SEC approval for proof of stake — a protocol specific to blockchain.

Bitcoin is underpinned by a different protocol, known as proof of work, where volunteer miners validate transactions and mint new tokens.

The SEC has not taken issue with proof of work from a securities law standpoint.

Continue Reading

Technology

Amazon CEO Jassy says company is reducing bureaucracy, which is ‘anathema’ to innovation

Published

on

By

Amazon CEO Jassy says company is reducing bureaucracy, which is ‘anathema’ to innovation

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, speaks during an unveiling event in New York on Feb. 26, 2025.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that he’s working to root out bureaucracy from within the company’s ranks as part of an effort to reset its culture.

Speaking at Amazon’s annual conference for third-party sellers in Seattle, Jassy said the changes are necessary for the company to be able to innovate faster.

“I would say bureaucracy is really anathema to startups and to entrepreneurial organizations,” Jassy said. “As you get larger, it’s really easy to accumulate bureaucracy, a lot of bureaucracy that you may not see.”

A year ago, as part of a mandate requiring corporate employees to work in the office five days a week, Jassy set a goal to flatten organizations across Amazon. He called for the company to increase worker-to-manager ratios by at least 15% by the end of the first quarter of this year.

Jassy also announced the creation of a “no bureaucracy email alias” so that employees can flag unnecessary processes or excessive rules within the company.

Amazon has received about 1,500 emails in the past year, and the company has changed about 455 processes based on that feedback, Jassy said.

The changes are linked to Jassy’s broad strategy to overhaul Amazon’s corporate culture and operate like the “world’s largest startup” as it looks to stay competitive.

Jassy, who took the helm from founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, has been on a campaign to slash costs across the company in recent years. Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since 2022, and axed some of its more unprofitable initiatives. Jassy has also urged employees to do more with less at the same time that the company invests heavily in artificial intelligence.

Transforming Amazon into a startup-like environment isn’t an easy task. The company operates sprawling businesses across retail, cloud computing, advertising, and other areas. It’s the U.S. second-largest private employer, with more than 1.5 million employees globally.

“You have to keep remembering your roots and how useful it is to be scrappy,” Jassy said.

WATCH: Jassy on how AI will change the workforce

AI will change the workforce, says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

Continue Reading

Technology

StubHub to price IPO at $23.50, valuing company at $8.6 billion

Published

on

By

StubHub to price IPO at .50, valuing company at .6 billion

The StubHub logo is seen at its headquarters in San Francisco.

Andrej Sokolow | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Online ticket platform StubHub is pricing its IPO at $23.50, CNBC’s Leslie Picker confirmed on Tuesday.

The pricing comes at the midpoint of the expected range that the company gave last week. At $23.50, the pricing gives StubHub a valuation of $8.6 billion. StubHub will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “STUB.”

The San Francisco-based company was co-founded by Eric Baker in 2000, and was acquired by eBay for $310 million seven years later. Baker reacquired StubHub in 2020 for roughly $4 billion through his new company Viagogo, which operates a ticket marketplace in Europe.

StubHub has been trying to go public for the past several years, but delayed its public debut twice. The most recent stall came in April after President Donald Trump‘s “Liberation Day” tariffs roiled markets.

The company filed an updated prospectus in August, effectively restarting the process to go public.

The IPO market has bounced back in recent months after an extended dry spell due to high inflation and rising interest rates. Klarna made its debut on the NYSE last week after the online lender also delayed its IPO in April. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss’ Gemini, stablecoin issuer Circle, Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish and design software company Figma have all soared in their respective debuts.

At the top of the pricing range StubHub offered last week, the company would have been valued at $9.2 billion. StubHub had sought a $16.5 billion valuation before it began the IPO process, CNBC previously reported

StubHub said in its updated prospectus that first-quarter revenue increased 10% from a year earlier to $397.6 million. Operating income came in at $26.8 million for the period.

The company’s net loss widened to $35.9 million from $29.7 million a year ago.

WATCH: Some recent IPOs have been ‘frothy’

Some of the recent IPO offerings have been 'frothy', says Tastylive's Tom Sosnoff

Continue Reading

Technology

Oracle and Silver Lake part of TikTok investor group as Trump extends deal deadline

Published

on

By

Oracle and Silver Lake part of TikTok investor group as Trump extends deal deadline

In this photo illustration, the logo of TikTok is displayed on a smartphone screen on April 5, 2025 in Shanghai, China. 

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Tuesday extended the deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. business, which will be owned by an investor consortium that includes Oracle and Silver Lake, CNBC’s David Faber reported.

It’s the fourth time Trump has extended the deadline. The extension, as described in an executive order, precludes the Department of Justice from enforcing a national security law that would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S. until Dec. 16.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed on Monday that a “framework deal” had been reached involving TikTok. Under the national security law, which would have come into effect on Wednesday, app store operators like Apple and Google and internet service providers would be penalized for providing services to TikTok’s U.S. operations if a deal was not reached.

Under the framework deal, about 80% of TikTok’s U.S. business would be owned by an investor consortium that includes Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz, the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported. As part of the arrangement, existing U.S. users would need to shift to a new app, according to report.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected on Friday to discuss the terms of the TikTok-related deal that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed on Monday.

The deal, which is expected to close in the next 30 to 45 days, includes new investors, existing ByteDance investors and will result in Oracle maintaining its cloud computing agreement with TikTok, CNBC’s David Faber reported earlier on Tuesday.

Bessent said Tuesday during CNBC’s Squawk Box that Trump was willing to let TikTok “go dark,” which spurred China to agree to a deal. The Treasury Secretary said that the deal’s commercial terms had already been finalized “in essence” since March or April, but China put the deal on hold following Trump’s tough tariffs and trade policies.

“We were able to reach a series of agreements, mostly for things we will not be doing in the future that have no effect on our national security,” Bessent said Tuesday.

A senior White House official said in a statement that, “Any details of the TikTok framework are pure speculation unless they are announced by this administration.”

TikTok did not reply to a request for comment.

WATCH: Trump’s willingness to let TikTok go dark motivated China to make deal.

Treasury Secretary Bessent: Trump's willingness to let TikTok go dark motivated China to make deal

Continue Reading

Trending