On Thursday, asset management titan BlackRock filed for approval of an Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would hold the cryptocurrency Ether directly. This spot ETF filing comes after the company already applied for a similar Bitcoin investment vehicle in June.
The move signals BlackRock’s growing embrace of digital assets, as it looks beyond just Bitcoin to other major cryptocurrencies like Ether. It also shows the firm’s confidence that spot crypto ETFs will ultimately get regulatory approval after a federal court ruled against the SEC’s rejection of a spot Bitcoin ETF application by Grayscale.
BlackRock’s Ethereum Trust ETF would trade on Nasdaq if greenlit by the SEC. It faces competition from crypto specialists like Grayscale and Invesco, who have also filed for spot ether funds after the Grayscale court decision restored industry optimism.
As the second-largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin, an SEC-approved ether ETF would give mainstream investors easy exposure to this digital asset and its blockchain network Ethereum. The Ethereum blockchain powers decentralized apps and NFTs and is transitioning to a less energy-intensive ‘proof-of-stake’ system.
