According to one of Ethereum’s co-founders, investors should look out for an ETH futures contract in the near future. It could potentially usher in the first cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has, in the past, pushed back against the idea of a crypto ETF. It presented a to-do list that the industry needs to accomplish before any such fund would be allowed. And a futures market was high on the list.

This is partly why Bitcoin has surged past $15,000. Investors turned extremely bullish when two of the world’s biggest derivatives markets, the CBOE and the CME, announced the introduction of a Bitcoin futures contract.

Now Ethereum is next in line. Or at least, that’s the takeaway from a recent interview with Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin.

When asked about the timeline for an ETH futures contract, Lubin refused to give a straight answer. But the interviewer pressed on, asking if investors should be thinking in terms of months. And that’s when Lubin dropped a bombshell.

“Months would be a long, long time,” he replied. (Source: “Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin on Cryptocurrency Futures,” Cheddar, December 6, 2017.)

Without stretching the limits of credulity, I think it’s fair to say this implies we’re looking at weeks, not months. Lubin didn’t want to state this explicitly, probably because talks are ongoing, but he did raise expectations.

The logic here is simple: BTC is on a maniacal run because of its futures contract. Therefore, we should expect a corresponding rise in ETH once its contract is announced. And that could happen within weeks, meaning that ETH prices could surge within weeks.

Daily Ethereum Chart:

The chain of logic is pretty tight. To be sure, it is contingent on several factors. 1) That Lubin is “in the know,” and 2) That we are correctly interpreting his words.

As for the former, Lubin is a co-founder of Ethereum and currently the CEO and founder of a major crypto startup called ConsenSys. He is exactly the kind of person that regulators consult with when crafting rules around an emerging technology.

By any standards, he is a credible expert.

Now, onto the latter supposition. Are we correctly interpreting his words? We certainly think so, but I encourage you to watch his interview yourself.

Analyst Take:

It is tempting to raise price targets in response to these comments, but that would be rash. At the moment, we maintain our $1,500 Ethereum price forecast for 2018.

Source: Price Confidential