Five potential spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers have submitted amended 19b-4 filings after receiving last-minute feedback from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several filings show changes from asset managers Fidelity, VanEck and Franklin Templeton, along with joint applications from Galaxy and Invesco, and ARK Invest and 21Shares.

The amendments saw Fidelity, Franklin Templeton and ARK 21Shares remove provisions for Ether staking.

“Neither the Trust, nor the Sponsor, nor the Custodian, nor any other person associated with the Trust will, directly or indirectly, engage in action where any portion of the Trust’s ETH becomes subject to the Ethereum proof-of-stake validation or is used to earn additional ETH or generate income or other earnings,” Fidelity’s amended 19b-4 filing read.

The other Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)-sponsored applicants used similar language.

Grayscale also scrapped staking, according to a proxy statement.

However, Adam Cochran, partner at venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, claimed that an approved spot Ether ETF without the staking element would actually boost staking returns.

“ETFs without staking provide the same crucial boost to Ethereum’s legitimacy while avoiding ETF tail risk and diluting my yield,” added Ryan Berckmans, Ethereum community member and investor.

All five CBOE filings came in the 25 minutes between 9:35 pm and 10:00 pm UTC on May 21, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart.

The approved 19b-4 filings will need to be accompanied by signed-off S-1 registration statements for the ETFs to launch, Seyffart iterated.

“Still a potentially long way from a launch. But these filings prove that all of the rumors and speculation and chatter have been accurate,” he added.

The SEC must decide on VanEck’s application by May 23. However, industry pundits tip the regulator to decide on all or most applicants, similar to how it handled spot Bitcoin ETF applications in January.

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