Fidelity files for spot Ethereum ETF

Financial company Fidelity Investments has filed with the SEC заявку for the registration of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on the spot price of Ethereum.

The firm took this step following its competitor — BlackRock.

Shares of the Fidelity Ethereum Fund are expected to trade on the Cboe BZX exchange. The fund’s assets will be custodied by Fidelity Digital Assets Services.

The firm noted that approval of such a product “would be a major victory for protecting US investors in the cryptocurrency space.”

Fidelity argues that in the absence of a spot ETF, those seeking to invest in cryptocurrency are forced to resort to riskier vehicles such as over-the-counter funds. As a result, investors face legal uncertainty, high management fees and potentially volatile premiums and discounts.

The firm also drew the regulator’s attention to the fact that in European countries, including Germany, Switzerland and France, access to spot-based Ethereum exchange-traded products is already available.

According to Fidelity, losses by American investors in failed crypto projects such as FTX, Celsius Network and BlockFi would have been considerably lower if an Ethereum ETF had existed.

The Bloomberg market analyst James Seyffart noted that the company’s filing for a spot Ethereum ETF has become the seventh.

They are the 7th filer for spot Ethereum as far as I’m aware. Here are the first 6: pic.twitter.com/na6SXtKhF3

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 17, 2023

The SEC delayed its decision on Hashdex’s proposed Ethereum ETF.

Earlier in June, Fidelity filed an application on the registration of a spot Bitcoin ETF, following BlackRock.