Investment behemoth Fidelity Investments has made a significant update to its application for launching a dedicated Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF), as per a document submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on June 21. The modification to Form S-1, which is crucial for registering public investments, indicates a significant step forward for the project.
The review reveals that FMR Capital, an affiliate of Fidelity, has made a substantial capital contribution, acquiring 125,000 shares at a price of $38 each, resulting in an initial investment of $4.7 million. This amount was used to purchase 1,250 units of Ether, which will support the fund’s assets.
It is worth noting that Fidelity has confirmed that it will not participate in the staking of ETH, a decision that aligns with the removal of this functionality from its original proposal made on May 21. The document clarifies that “The Trust will not participate in the Ethereum network’s proof-of-stake validation mechanism (i.e., the Trust will not ‘stake’ its ether) to earn additional ether or pursue other means of generating income from its holdings in ether.”
In addition to Fidelity, the rule change approved by the SEC now allows major asset managers such as VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, and Bitwise to list and trade eight spot Ether ETFs. However, all of these funds are still awaiting final SEC approval for their S-1 forms before they can be officially marketed.
Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, suggests that June 21 will mark a series of filing changes, with the funds expected to launch on July 2. Balchunas commented in a post, “We will see a bunch of amended S-1s filed today, probably late afternoon. Then the ball is in the SEC’s court to inform issuers of any final changes and effectiveness (also known as final approval). We hold the line with July 2 as the over/under launch date for ETH ETFs.”
At the time of publication, the price of ETH is quoted at $3,485.13, experiencing a 1% drop in the last 24 hours.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author or anyone mentioned in this article are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing or trading cryptocurrencies carries a risk of financial loss.
Editor’s Choice: The expected date for the approval of Ethereum ETFs could be July 2. Ethereum could potentially surpass $5,000 with the ETF forecast in July and attract $3 billion in investments.