Fidelity, with its $4.5 trillion in assets under management, has formally submitted an S-1 form to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), unveiling plans for a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) that intriguingly includes staking.
This move follows the early-year approval of the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the US, where Fidelity emerged as one of the pioneering issuers.
Fidelity Files for Ethereum ETF Again
The approval of a spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, helped propelled the price of BTC to a record $73,000. As a result, industry spectators now speculate on the next big cryptocurrency to be packaged into an ETF. Interestingly, Ethereum frequently tops the list of candidates.
The Fidelity Ethereum Fund aims to issue shares trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). It also introduces the novel feature of staking, offering investors a new avenue to earn rewards.
“The Fidelity Ethereum Fund (the ‘Trust’) is an exchange-traded product that issues shares of beneficial interest that seeks to list and trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. The Trust’s investment objective is to seek to track the performance of ether, as measured by the performance of the Fidelity Ethereum Reference Rate, adjusted for the Trust’s expenses and other liabilities,” the company detailed in the filing.
This filing is not Fidelity’s first foray into Ethereum ETFs. It had initially lodged a filing in November 2023 alongside other financial titans such as BlackRock, VanEck, and ARK Invest.
Read more: Ethereum ETF Explained: What It Is and How It Works
However, the path to approval is fraught with regulatory hurdles. The SEC has recently embarked on a legal crusade challenging Ethereum’s status, casting a shadow of uncertainty over the future of Ethereum ETFs. Despite this, industry optimists, like GrayScale’s Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm, remain positive.
Drawing parallels with the spot Bitcoin ETF’s journey, Salm suggests that the groundwork laid by previous negotiations could streamline the approval process for Ethereum ETFs.
“All of these issues were figured out and are identical when comparing spot Bitcoin to Ethereum ETFs. The only difference is rather than the ETF holding bitcoin, it holds ether. So in many ways, the SEC already has engaged and issuers simply have less to engage on this time,” Salm noted.
The potential for a spot Ethereum ETF, particularly one that includes staking, represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of cryptocurrency investment products.
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