In Likely Precursor to Ether ETF Approval, Most Applicants Have Submitted Their Final Forms

Applicants seeking to issue exchange-traded funds tied to Ethereum’s ether (ETH) have now submitted their final documents needed to launch the funds, probably next week.
Asset managers including BlackRock, Fidelity, 21Shares, Grayscale, Bitwise and Invesco Galaxy – who are all in the race to launch ether ETFs in the U.S. – submitted amended S-1 filings on Wednesday.
Two industry sources previously told CoinDesk that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff advised them to file final amendments by Wednesday and that the applications may be deemed effective – essentially, approved – by Monday, with trading to begin Tuesday.
In the filings, the prospective issuers revealed the final details of the fund structures, including management fees, which turned out to be relevant for investors when choosing which spot bitcoin ETF they would invest in when they debuted early this year. Experts have said that the fee war in this round of launches would be similar to the competitive landscape then, when issuers kept lowering their fees to compete with other funds.
One similarity so far is Grayscale’s distance from its competitors. The asset manager decided to charge a significantly higher fee of 2.5% on its main product than others. Its Mini Ethereum Trust, however, is set at 0.25%, in line with others.
“I’m not sure what Grayscale’s strategy is here,” said industry commentator Scott Johnson in a post on X. “Feels like they started with the right idea, then it got botched somewhere along the way. Investors selling ETHE are probably not going to be charitable with your mid-price mini option after you stick them with a 10x fee and force them to realize gains.”
“Honestly, they might have screwed themselves worse than GBTC. I didn’t think that was possible,” he wrote, referring to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) seeing billions of dollars of outflows since it was converted to an ETF in January as other bitcoin ETFs started trading.
BlackRock and Fidelity will also charge 0.25%, while 21Shares set its fee at 0.21%. Bitwise, VanEck and Invesco Galaxy are at the lower end of the spectrum at 0.2% while Franklin Templeton will charge 0.19%.
ProShares had not filed an amendment revealing its fee as of press time.
The SEC also approved 19b-4 forms for applications from Grayscale to launch a mini ethereum exchange-traded product and ProShares to launch a spot ethereum ETF on Wednesday.
Both companies are working with NYSE Arca as their exchange partner that will actually list the products. The SEC previously approved 19b-4 forms from NYSE Arca, Cboe and Nasdaq for the various applications for spot ether ETFs near the end of May, resolving a procedural hurdle and giving the strongest indication thus far that it would ultimately approve the spot ether ETF applications.
The timing of Wednesday’s 19b-4 approvals suggests that Grayscale and ProShares may also be able to launch their products at the same time as the other applicants. Industry sources previously told CoinDesk they expected these products to launch next Tuesday.
If Grayscale can launch its mini ether ETF on Tuesday, it’ll do so before it receives approval to launch a mini bitcoin ETF. The company filed to launch a mini bitcoin ETF in April, revealing earlier this year it would charge a 0.15% fee – in contrast to the mini ether product’s 0.25%.
Edited by Nick Baker.
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Helene is a New York-based reporter covering Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin ETFs and crypto exchanges. She is also the co-host of CoinDesk’s Markets Daily show. Helene is a graduate of New York University’s business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.
Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk’s managing editor for global policy and regulation. He owns marginal amounts of bitcoin and ether.