My take? Well with the recent statements from the SEC about almost all crypto not being compliant with SEC filing and disclosure regulations, and with it seemingly going very quiet on the ETH spot applications, and there being very small demand for Eth in the HK ETH - overall I would say, we will not see an ETH ETF anytime soon. As I have said, it would essentially be a perversion of the law. Best shot would be for legislative change, and that will not come, if at all, until next election. So, I would not rule it out entirely, but I see it as unlikely, and would suggest tempering expectations.
Perversion of law?! LMAO. What law?! The Securities act was established many decades before cryptocurrencies were developed. Securities require contracts. There are no contracts trading any cryptocurrencies. There is literally no difference between you buying Bitcoin or me buying (or mining) Ethereum or Dogecoin. We both bought it with FIAT. We both did not sign any contracts. We both expect a profit. In my case I bought some Ethereum but the vast majority was mined via Proof of Work.
The SEC will lose in court if they try to claim that the Ethereum token is a security. Proof of Stake does not change the classification either. Setting up a solo staking validator takes more work and is a lot more complicated than plugging an ASIC miner into an outlet to mine BTC. Proof of Stake validators are "workers", just like miners are workers. They need hardware, electricity, internet, a building, cooling, and regular maintenance. With Proof of Stake there is the added issue that your staked ETH could be subject to incremental slashing should the validator be offline for prolonged periods.
I would argue that Ethereum staking is also more decentralized than Bitcoin mining.
The initial ICO of Ethereum might be seen as a securities violation - we'll see. Bitcoin was sold to acquire Ethereum. But the many subsequent mining and purchasing of Ethereum to third parties were not securities violations. The token itself is not a security. This was proved in court with the Ripple case. And solo Proof of Stake requires a lot of work and technical expertise on the part of the participant. That in addition to the absence of any contracts means POS Ethereum is not a security at all. But the courts could prove that if needed.