Volatility Shares, a financial firm offering a range of exchange-traded fund (ETF) products, canceled its plans to launch an Ether (ETH) futures ETF on Oct. 2, citing changes in the market.
In an email with Cointelegraph, the company’s co-founder and president, Justin Young, confirmed the cancellation:
“You are correct — we did not launch today. We didn’t see the opportunity at this point in time.”
However, when asked if the company still planned to launch an ETH futures ETF at a later date, Young responded, “Of course,” adding that “plans are TBD.”
Ether futures ETFs track the prices of ETH futures contracts — agreements to trade the asset at a specific time and price in the future. Essentially, they allow investors to be involved in ETH trading without having to actually hold any of the cryptocurrency.
Volatility Shares was previously positioned to be the first firm to offer an ETH futures ETF. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission was expected to approve the first such product on Oct. 12, but concerns over the previously impending Oct. 1 U.S. government shutdown reportedly prompted the SEC to move the timeline for approval up.
As of Oct. 2, several firms have begun trading ETH futures ETFs, including Valkyrie, VanEck, ProShares and Bitwise.
Pretty meh volume for the Ether Futures ETFs as a group, a little under $2m, about normal for a new ETF but vs $BITO (which did $200m in first 15min) it is low. Tight race bt VanEck and ProShares in the single eth lane. pic.twitter.com/F9AHtrVcVf
As Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright recently wrote, “Bills for the good or ill of digital assets would be halted amid a shutdown, and financial regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, would be running on a skeleton crew.”
In a twist, the U.S. government managed to avoid the shutdown by passing a stopgap measure to keep services funded through Nov. 17, with the Senate voting 88-9 to pass the measure. U.S. President Joe Biden signed it into law immediately.
The license came eight months after the regulator granted the company in-principle approval, and a few weeks after Bybit secured a non-operational license for Dubai.
Sir Keir Starmer has denied any ministers were involved in the collapse of the trial of alleged Chinese spies.
Christopher Cash, 30, a former parliamentary researcher, and teacher Christopher Berry, 33, were accused of spying for China, but weeks before their trial was due to begin, it was dropped.
Berry, of Witney, Oxfordshire, and Cash, of Whitechapel, east London denied the allegations.
Sir Keir, his ministers and national security adviser Jonathan Powell have faced accusations they were involved in the trial being dropped.
The prime minister has maintained that because the last Conservative government had not designated China as a threat to national security, his government could not provide evidence to that effect, which the director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said was required to meet the threshold for prosecution.
Mr Parkinson had blamed ministers for failing to provide the crucial evidence needed to proceed.
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During a trade visit to India, the prime minister was asked whether any minister, or Mr Powell, were involved in the decision not to provide the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with evidence that, at the time of the alleged offences, China represented a threat to national security.
He replied: “I can be absolutely clear no ministers were involved in any of the decisions since this government’s been in in relation to the evidence that’s put before the court on this issue.”
Sir Keir reiterated his line that the case could only rely on evidence from the period the pair were accused of spying, from 2021 to 2023, when the Conservatives were in government.
He said: “The evidence in this case was drawn up at the time and reflected the position as it was at the time,” the PM said in India.
“And that has remained the situation from start to finish.
“That is inevitably the case because in the United Kingdom, you can only try people on the basis of the situation as it was at the time.
“You can’t try people on the basis of the situation, as it now is or might be in the future, and therefore, the only evidence that a court would ever admit on this would be evidence of what the situation was at the time.
“It’s not a party political point. It’s a matter of law.”
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Is China an enemy to the UK?
Sir Keir’s assertion has been called into question by former top civil servants and legal experts.
Mark Elliott, professor of public law at the University of Cambridge, told Sky News there is no legal requirement for a country to be declared an enemy for someone to be tried for breaching the Official Secrets Act.
He said the current government was “cherry picking” what the previous government had said about China to claim they did not regard them as a threat to national security.
However, there are several examples of the Tory government saying China was a national security threat during the time Berry and Cash were accused of spying.