Fidelity, an asset management firm overseeing $4.5 trillion in assets, has submitted a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking approval for a spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF). The filing proposes listing and trading shares of the Fidelity Ethereum Fund on the Cboe BZX Exchange.
“According to the Registration Statement, each Share will represent a fractional undivided beneficial interest in the Trust’s net assets. The Trust’s assets will consist of ETH held by the Custodian on behalf of the Trust.”
Update: @Fidelity joins the spot #ethereum ETF race by filing a 19b-4 with @CBOE pic.twitter.com/o96XspPDEP
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 17, 2023
The filing aims to provide a low-risk avenue for U.S. citizens to gain exposure to ETH, as the current methods involve counter-party risk, legal uncertainty, and technical risk. In contrast, investors across Europe have access to products trading on regulated exchanges, offering exposure to spot crypto assets.
Notably, if a spot Ether ETF had been available to U.S. citizens, the losses incurred from recent ban firms like FTX, Celsius Network, and BlockFi would likely be lower:
“If a Spot ETH ETP was available, it is likely that at least a portion of the billions of dollars tied up in those proceedings would still reside in the brokerage accounts of U.S. investors.”
Fidelity’s filing comes on the heels of BlackRock’s recent submission for the iShares Ethereum Trust, a spot Ether ETF with the SEC, following its approval for the Jacobi Bitcoin ETF in Europe. BlackRock’s filing comes almost six months after it filed its spot Bitcoin ETF application.
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