Fidelity files for spot Ethereum ETF, trailing BlackRock’s lead by two days

Fidelity Investments has filed for a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF), as seen in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Nov. 17.

Cboe BZX submitted a 19b-4 filing describing a proposed rule change that would allow it to list and trade shares of Fidelity’s planned fund. The new Ethereum proposal closely resembles Fidelity’s spot Bitcoin ETF proposal, submitted to the SEC in late June.

Both Fidelity filings follow similar applications from the company’s main competitor, BlackRock. BlackRock submitted an S-1 filing for its spot Ethereum ETF just days ago, on Nov. 15, and applied for its spot Bitcoin ETF months earlier in June.

The close timing between the competing filings may be explained by each asset manager’s exceptionally high standing. BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, with $9 trillion in assets under management. Fidelity, on the other hand, is the third largest asset manager in the world, with $4.2 trillion in assets under management.

Other firms have pending applications

Several other asset managers have also applied for their own spot Bitcoin ETFs and spot Ethereum ETFs following the above high-profile filings.

The SEC is expected to approve or reject a Bitcoin ETF by Jan. 10, 2024. That decision concerns a spot Bitcoin application from ARK Invest, which submitted its application in May — about one month before BlackRock submitted its more influential filing. The SEC could apply its decision to other pending ETF applications, many of which are intentionally similar to one another, in order to meet expected requirements.

Though the SEC will evaluate any spot Ethereum ETFs separately from spot Bitcoin ETFs, the approval of one type of fund may pave the way for the other.

It should be noted that although the SEC has not yet approved any Bitcoin or Ethereum spot ETF, it has approved futures ETFs of both types in recent months and years.

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