BlackRock Files Application for Ethereum ETF Spot, ETH Shows Positive Reaction
On the evening of November 16, 2023, the cryptocurrency community buzzed with news that Wall Street giant BlackRock had officially filed an application to establish an Ethereum ETF Spot
According to the filing, the asset management company submitted an S-1 registration statement to create the "iShares Ethereum Trust," aiming to "reflect the general performance of Ether's price."
The S-1 filing is a registration statement submitted by a company to the SEC, marking a crucial step in the listing process. This filing comes just a week after BlackRock registered the iShares Ethereum Trust with Delaware. Subsequently, Nasdaq filed for the Ethereum Spot ETF and BlackRock confirmed the information.
BlackRock has filed the S-1 prospectus for its Spot Ethereum ETF with the SEC, earlier this morning.
— Tree News (@News_Of_Alpha) November 16, 2023
The filing, among other things, appoints Coinbase as the Custodian for the underlying ETH.
There appears to be no mention on whether the Trust will actively be staking the ETH…
Thus, this is BlackRock's second proposal for cryptocurrency assets, following the establishment of the iShares Bitcoin Trust in June 2023.
Alongside BlackRock, other organizations including Grayscale, Ark Invest, VanEck, ProShares, and Valkyrie have also submitted proposals to the SEC for Ethereum spot ETFs recently, following the SEC's approval of Ethereum futures ETFs in early October. In the latest developments, SEC has delayed decisions on Hashdex's Bitcoin spot ETF and Grayscale's Ethereum futures ETF.
As reported by Coin68, ETFs have been driving cryptocurrency market growth since late October, initiated by major Wall Street players like BlackRock. However, the SEC has yet to approve any Bitcoin spot ETFs, arguing that the cryptocurrency market is still vulnerable to manipulation and fraud, posing risks to investors. A notable example includes incidents of impersonation targeting BlackRock to submit an XRP ETF application in Delaware.
ETH responded positively to the news, briefly rising 3% from $2,069 to $2,090, although it quickly retraced back to its initial value.
5-minute chart of ETH/USDT pair on Binance at 06:56 PM on November 16, 2023.
