Author: Ben Strack, Blockworks; Translated by: Wuzhu, Golden Finance

With U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs expected to launch soon, one detail missing from several proposals is the fees they would charge investors.

Those will likely be listed in a final registration statement, or S-1, filed once the SEC says it’s ready to allow them to start trading. That could happen as early as this week, the people said.

While price is often an important fund characteristic in the competitive ETF space, being the cheapest does not guarantee victory in any asset class race.

Crypto ETF experts and media (including Blockworks) spoke of the so-called “fee war” in January as fund groups prepared to launch the first U.S. spot BTC funds.

They and we are watching again. But it is difficult to quantify exactly what these tiny basis point differences mean to investors.

Franklin Templeton in May unveiled plans for a 0.19% fee on its spot Ethereum ETF. VanEck plans to charge 0.20% for a similar product. Invesco and Galaxy Digital said in a filing Monday that they plan to charge 0.25% for their jointly filed ETH fund.

Other issuers preparing to offer Ethereum ETFs — such as BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale — have yet to announce the fees for their proposed ETH products.

ETF Store president Nate Geraci noted last month that he expects the spot Ethereum ETF fee war to be “as brutal and bloody as the war surrounding BTC funds.”

But distribution and brand name are more important to ETH fund issuers than small fee differences, said Sumit Roy, senior analyst at ETF.com.

“BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF is likely to be more popular than an Ethereum ETF from an upstart ETF issuer, even if BlackRock’s fund is 5 basis points more expensive,” he noted.

Roy acknowledged that a larger difference, such as 10 or 20 basis points, could have a bigger impact on investors.

Ultimately, he added, the spot bitcoin ETF provides “a great template” for how competition within the ethereum ETF category could play out.

“BlackRock and Fidelity have huge advantages that they will exploit, but there is also an opportunity for smaller issuers like Bitwise to gain a foothold in the space with low fees and a unique perspective,” he said.

The lowest U.S. spot bitcoin ETF fee (not including initial fee waivers) is Franklin Templeton’s 0.19%. One day after the fund launched, the firm’s fee was lower than Bitwise’s 0.20%.

But Franklin Templeton’s BTC fund attracted only $345 million in net inflows six months after its launch. The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) brought in about $2.1 billion.

Funds from BlackRock and Fidelity lead the category, with $18 billion and $9.5 billion, respectively. Both charge slightly higher fees of 0.25%.

The most expensive fund to date, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), with an expense ratio of 1.5%, has experienced $18.6 billion in net outflows.

Industry watchers continue to focus on Grayscale’s fees for the “mini” versions of GBTC and Ethereum Trust (ETHE).

While some advisors said they have moved money from GBTC to cheaper BTC funds, others considered custodians, spreads and liquidity when deciding which ETFs to allocate to.