Ark Invest, the highly popular asset manager, and 21 Shares have filed an application with the SEC for the first ever spot ETF for Ethereum.
The premise of the ETF is simple but groundbreaking: to directly invest in Ethereum through a publicly listed fund.
What’s happening:
- Ark Invest and 21 Shares have officially submitted their application for SEC review
- The application states that they would custody their Ethereum with Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN)
Why it matters:
- Allowing institutional capital to get direct access to Ethereum through a spot ETF is a potential paradigm shift for crypto
- With the recent court decision that declared the SEC was wrong to deny Grayscale their spot Bitcoin ETF there is renewed excitement for crypto based ETFs
The fine print:
- The SEC recently announced they are temporarily delaying all decisions on Bitcoin spot ETFs, including the application from Blackrock
- While the court ruled in Grayscales favour on the Bitcoin spot ETF, that is not enough to get it listed as it will still require the final go ahead from the SEC
- It is unclear what the reaction will be from the SEC on a spot ETF for Ethereum, as the regulator has been increasingly cautious around crypto as an asset class
- Spot ETFs for both Bitcoin and Ethereum already exist in Canada, but are yet to be approved and listed in the United States
