Following Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler's statement that the regulator could green light a bitcoin exchange-traded fund based on listed futures, at least four asset managers, including Valkyrie Investment and VanEck, have applied for approval to launch one. However, analysts say investors could prefer to put their cash into ETFs that are directly backed by the cryptocurrency.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has extended until at least June 17 its decision window for approving bitcoin exchange-traded fund applications from VanEck and Cboe. The SEC says the new deadline is when "the Commission shall either approve or disapprove, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove, the proposed rule change."

UK-based CryptoCompare has partnered with VanEck's MV Index Solutions to launch an ethereum index that monitors hourly price changes on five exchanges. CryptoCompare chief executive Charles Hayter says the benchmark "will be key in helping institutional investors gain greater exposure to ethereum and bringing new players to market."

VanEck is getting ready to launch an exchange-traded fund that will buy stocks that are getting attention on social media sites. The VanEck Vectors Social Sentiment ETF will track the Buzz NextGen AI US Sentiment Leaders Index.