The U.S. Ethereum spot ETF is just one step away from completion.
On July 18, the issuers of Ethereum spot ETFs in the United States have successively submitted S-1/A documents to the SEC. Currently, 9 out of 10 ETFs have announced their fees, and only Proshares ETF has not announced them. The specific data is as follows:
The BlackRock iShares Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.25% (0.12% for the first $250 million) and is traded under the symbol ETHA;
The Fidelity Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.25% (no management fee in 2024) and the ticker is FETH;
The Bitwise Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.20% (0% for the first $500 million) and the ticker is ETHW;
The 21Shares Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.21% (0% for the first $500 million) and is priced under the ticker GETH;
The VanEck Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.20% (0% for the first $150 million) and the ticker is ETHV;
The Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.25% and is priced under the ticker QETH;
The Franklin Ethereum ETF has a fee of 0.19% (0% for the first $1 billion) and is priced under the ticker EZET;
Grayscale Ethereum ETF has a fee of 2.50% and the ticker is ETHE;
The Grayscale Ethereum Mini ETF has a fee of 0.25% (0.12% for the first $2 billion) and the ticker is ETH.
In addition, many ETH holders were angry because Grayscale Ethereum Trust’s 2.5% fee maintained its high fee structure for Bitcoin ETF. However, Grayscale also submitted a
The revised S-1 filing reduced the fee rate for its Ethereum Mini Trust (ticker ETH) from 0.25% to 0.15%. Grayscale also changed the details of the fee reduction: initially, similar to BlackRock, the fee was reduced to 0.12% for 12 months, but now the fee has been reduced to 0% for 6 months.
At present, the Ethereum ETF may be just one step away from approval. According to CoinDesk, two industry sources, SEC staff suggested that they submit final revised documents by Wednesday, and the application may be deemed effective (essentially approved) on Monday, and trading will begin on Tuesday.
Not only that, the price of Ethereum has also returned to above the $3,400 level from its previous drop below $3,000.
On July 19, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart's remarks on the X platform also supported the imminent approval of the Ethereum ETF: "We added some Ethereum ETFs to the Bloomberg (terminal) today. These include ETHW from Bitwise, CETH from 21Shares, and FETH from Fidelity. Other funds will likely be added tomorrow and Monday. Trading is still scheduled to start next week."
Coinage founder Zack Guzmán posted on the X platform that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Peirce said that the possibility of Ethereum ETFs participating in staking could be reconsidered. Peirce pointed out that "any features like staking or products can be reconsidered."
According to Decrypt, Coinbase data shows that as of July 18, more than 33.2 million ETH (worth about $114 billion) have been staked, accounting for about 28% of the total supply of ETH. The increase in the total value of staked ETH is consistent with the nearly 5% increase in the expected return rate of ETH staking in the past month.
According to Coinbase, Ethereum staking currently has an estimated return of 2.60%. This is up from 2.48% last month. According to on-chain data collated by Dune, Ethereum staking has been steadily rising, breaking the 30 million ETH mark in February and setting a record high of more than 33.4 million on July 12.
Ethereum holders are also growing interested in staking as investors anticipate a massive spot Ethereum ETF to receive final approval to launch in the U.S. this month.
Morningstar Direct data shows that the previous launch of Bitcoin ETFs was the most successful in the history of the ETF market, with nine new products attracting about $6.6 billion in assets in the first three weeks of trading. As of the end of June, these ETFs have attracted net inflows of $33.1 billion.
Martin Leinweber, digital asset product strategist at MarketVector Indexes, said he expects inflows into the new ether ETF to be more modest and ether price volatility to be greater because of ether’s small market size and trading volume relative to bitcoin, which hit new highs after the ETF was approved.
Foley & Lardner LLP said crypto assets can start out as securities and transform into commodities (or other non-securities) over time. Therefore, the founders of Ethereum, as well as many other cryptocurrency assets, can rest easy knowing that their assets are either decentralized or can become so decentralized that the SEC cannot classify them as securities.
Even after the approval order, lawyers expect SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to reiterate his position that most crypto assets are still securities in the eyes of the SEC. Chairman Gensler reiterated this belief after the approval of the BTC ETF and again a few days before the approval order for the ETH ETF. However, we are optimistic that the SEC’s decision to approve two cryptocurrency ETFs demonstrates the SEC staff’s commitment to a “merit-neutral” view.
