The filing comes after a flurry of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF filings this summer, many of which came from prominent institutions.
Ark Management and 21Shares
It’s reported on Sep 6th that Ark Investment Management and 21Shares had filed to sell a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF).
On the day of the report, the two companies submitted their application to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
If approved, the fund will trade under the ticker ARKE.
Ark’s spot Ethereum ETF
The fund would allow regular investors to invest in a fund that is physically backed by Ethereum (ETH) without having to buy or hold cryptocurrency directly. Furthermore, if successful, Ark’s spot Ethereum ETF would be the first of its kind.
Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO of Ark Invest, commented on the plan’s ambitious nature, noting that no comparable Bitcoin fund existed. quoted her as saying:
“There’s been so much regulatory controversy about a Bitcoin spot ETF that I guess many people thought it was a step too far — but we don’t … And it’s always nice to be first.”
Meanwhile, Ophelia Snyder, co-founder and president of 21Shares, suggested that Grayscale’s success against the SEC influenced the timing of its own application, which will see Grayscale press the agency to accept its GBTC ETF conversion. Snyder also stated that the fundamentals of the Ethereum market influenced its implementation.
BTC efforts followed by an ETH
Along with its latest Ethereum application, Ark is pursuing a Bitcoin spot ETF. Following BlackRock’s proposal in June, Ark and a number of other asset managers filed similar applications to launch a Bitcoin spot ETF.
Those petitions are considered as promising because to BlackRock’s prominence as a financial behemoth and the inclusion of a Coinbase surveillance-sharing agreement in each submission.
In August, Wood addressed the current situation.
She correctly predicted that the SEC will postpone a judgement on the most recent spot Bitcoin ETF applications; nonetheless, she believes that the SEC will eventually approve numerous applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF because most current submissions are similar.
Despite considerable optimism, no spot Bitcoin or spot Ethereum ETF has yet to be approved.
In fact, Ark’s Bitcoin ETF applications have previously been rejected by the SEC. In January 2023, the company received its most recent rejection.
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