Grayscale Investments Applies to Offer Ethereum Futures ETF

The fund, if approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, would be separate from the firm’s proposed Bitcoin ETF.

2 min read

Sep 20, 2023

Grayscale Investments has applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a new crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Unlike the flurry of Bitcoin spot ETFs still sitting with the regulator, however, this one would be an Ethereum futures ETF.

Paperwork filed by the firm on Tuesday showed that the fund would "not transact in Ether and will not be required to retain an Ether custodian" and instead would deal strictly in futures.

Grayscale's filing comes after the asset manager last month scored a victory Wall Street's biggest regulator when a federal judge decided to overturn the SEC's decision to block Grayscale from converting its Bitcoin trust into a spot ETF.

Now, as Grayscale awaits approval for its Bitcoin ETF, it is hoping an Ethereum futures ETF will get the green light from the SEC.

The SEC first approved a Bitcoin futures ETF—which allows investors to bet on the future price of digital assets— in 2021. Such investment vehicles track the price of cryptocurrencies but do not store crypto.

Investors are really hungry for spot crypto ETFs, and the SEC is currently reviewing a number of such applications—including one from the world's top asset manager, BlackRock.

A crypto ETF would give traditional investors exposure to the asset in a safer way: ETFs are investment vehicles that allow people to buy shares that track the price of an underlying asset, and a Bitcoin ETF would allow investors to invest in the asset without having to worry about storing and protecting their cryptocurrency holdings.

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