The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs from eight financial companies. Trading of the new investment instruments started on three U.S. stock exchanges.
In the U.S., exchange-traded funds (ETF) based on spot Ethereum (ETH) quotes from BlackRock, Fidelity, 21Shares, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, VanEck, Grayscale, and Invesco Galaxy received final approval from the SEC after registering S-1 filings. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing knowledgeable sources.
The SEC took two months to approve new crypto-based investment products. Trading of spot Ethereum ETFs started on July 23 on three U.S. stock exchanges:
- The Nasdaq will trade the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) from BlackRock;
- The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will start trading Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH), and Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW);
- The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) will begin trading five exchange-traded funds: 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF (CETH), Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH), Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF (QETH), VanEck Ethereum ETF (ETHV), and Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET).
Most issuers of spot Ethereum ETFs offer a base fee of up to 0.25%. Grayscale’s ETHE fund has the highest fee (2.5%), while Franklin Templeton’s EZET has the lowest (0.19%). In addition, Fidelity, 21Shares, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck will exempt investors from fees for a certain period or until they reach a particular amount of assets under management.
Kaiko analysts believe that the next few days will see an influx of funds into spot Ethereum ETFs, which will negatively impact ETH quotes. According to CoinGecko, over the past 24 hours, the asset’s price grew by 0.9% and is $3,525 as of 13:30 (GMT+3).
Attempts to launch spot Ethereum ETFs started in September 2023. Only nine months later, after futile attempts to recognize ETH as a security, the SEC approved 19b-4 filings allowing the listing and trading of spot Ethereum ETFs on exchanges.
