According to "The Block" report, Cynthia Lo Bessette, head of the digital asset management unit of asset management company Fidelity, said that she is still not sure whether there is enough market demand for alternative cryptocurrency ETFs other than Bitcoin and Ethereum. And it is believed that the approval of the Ethereum spot ETF pledge mechanism may be only a matter of time. She also revealed that her department is researching tokenization technology and stablecoins.
"The way we think about our product roadmap is primarily driven by the needs of our customer base and how we assess whether the market has the capability to support this type of new product," Lo Bessette said in a recent interview with "The Block": “It’s unclear whether there is an obvious next ETP (exchange-traded product) after Bitcoin and Ethereum.”
The Bitcoin spot ETF (Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund, stock code: FBTC) issued by Fidelity ranks in the top three among similar fund products in terms of asset management size, and is at least the fifth largest ETF in the United States by trading volume this year. As of August 14, FBTC’s net asset value has exceeded $10 billion, while Fidelity’s Ethereum Spot ETF (Fidelity Ethereum Fund, FETH) has seen net inflows of $357 million since its listing in July this year.
“To the great surprise of many of us, the growth in demand has been really significant,” Lo Bessette said. “Given Ethereum’s overall market capitalization and size compared to Bitcoin, its asset growth has been roughly in line with our expectations. "
Introducing the possibility of staking in Ethereum spot ETFs
In addition, Lo Bessette also mentioned that although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not yet allowed staking of the underlying assets held by Ethereum ETFs, this may change in the future, as staking is "an important part of the Ethereum ecosystem …is an important part of the Ethereum investment opportunity.”
Lo Bessette added, "Regardless of the timeframe in which this happens, I think it's more of a question of when, not necessarily if," noting that her team has had "constructive discussions" with SEC staff. Dialogue" to discuss the possibility of bringing this feature to market.
Additionally, Lo Bessette said Fidelity is discussing the possibility of "enhancing the way our products are currently traded" through physical subscriptions. Currently, all Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in the U.S. market must be settled in cash, while Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency ETFs allow physical subscriptions (ETF shares can be purchased directly with Bitcoin or Ethereum).
Assets on the chain
Fidelity's product roadmap also includes tokenization products. Lo Bessette pointed out in an interview that her team not only focuses on the issue of "whether assets can be represented on the chain", but also on whether the assets should be on the chain. , it all comes back to customer demand and whether blockchain can unlock activities that cannot be achieved by existing traditional capital markets.
Lo Bessette said stablecoins in particular were an area that clearly could gain value from tokenization, and hinted that the company may be considering launching its own product, saying:
"We are observing and indeed evaluating the projects that have emerged in the market, and from the perspective of representing tokenized cash, we think stablecoins are undoubtedly an obvious application scenario."
Lo Bessette added: “The next evolution after stablecoins is tokenized treasury products. After this, we have seen a lot of interesting projects working in the field of credit and structured products, which we are also studying.”
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