The massive asset management company BlackRock increased its cryptocurrency bets on Thursday by formally filing for a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the hopes that these investment vehicles will be approved by investors.
The second-most popular cryptocurrency, ether, will be accessible to investors through the Nasdaq-listed iShares Ethereum Trust, which was registered last week and will list if authorised.
BlackRock wants to change the trust into a “spot” ETF, which means it will hold ether rather than futures products linked to the cryptocurrency token.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has long maintained that the spot cryptocurrency market is vulnerable to manipulation and fraud, even though futures-based crypto ETFs have received regulatory approval in the past.
However, in August, a federal appeals court decided that the SEC erred in denying Grayscale Investments’ request to establish a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Following several high-profile collapses in the cryptocurrency space last year, the historic victory for Grayscale has invigorated businesses that have recently applied for these investment vehicles and helped regain some of the public’s trust.
With its June application for a spot bitcoin ETF, BlackRock took a tentative step into the cryptocurrency world. The Wall Street giant is attempting to go beyond bitcoin, the most well-known cryptocurrency in the world, according to its most recent filing.
The company will compete for market share against established financial behemoths like Invesco as well as cryptocurrency natives like Grayscale and Valkyrie.
The ether of the proposed ETF will be supervised by Coinbase Custody, a division of Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange. Also, the business is the one being considered to be the custodian of BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF.
