Nine ETFs that hold ETH directly began trading on US exchanges Tuesday, marking another crypto investment milestone just half a year after the country’s debut of spot BTC funds.
Investors can choose between ETH products by BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, VanEck, Bitwise, 21Shares and Franklin Templeton, as well as one by Invesco and Galaxy Digital. Each ETF is available on either the Cboe, NYSE Arca or Nasdaq exchanges.
Grayscale has two spot ETH offerings: its Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and Mini Ethereum Trust (ETH), with fees of 2.5% and 0.15%, respectively. The latter ETF will start with roughly $1 billion in assets, given its design to receive 10% of the current assets in ETHE. The firm’s “Mini” Trust is currently the cheapest US ETH fund.
Read more: Does the ETH ETF ‘fee war’ even matter to investors?
The launches come two months after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the 19b-4 proposals filed by the three exchanges set to list the products. Issuers then had to finalize disclosure details with the agency in order to bring the ETFs to market.
The offerings reflect a long-awaited unlock for investors wanting easier access to the second-largest crypto asset by market capitalization.
“While many see bitcoin’s key appeal in its scarcity, many find Ethereum’s appeal in its utility,” Jay Jacobs, US head of thematic and active ETFs at BlackRock, said in a video. “You could think of Ethereum as a global platform for applications.”
Coinbase is a custodian for eight of the nine newly approved ETH ETFs, noted Tom Duff Gordon, the crypto exchange’s vice president of international policy.
“Coinbase has championed regulatory clarity since our inception, and this milestone further validates our position as crypto’s presence is made mainstream in economies across the globe,” he said in an email. “This development highlights that crypto is not merely a trend; it illustrates the transformative digital shift in the financial system.”
US spot bitcoin ETFs have notched net inflows of nearly $17.6 billion since launching in January. Roughly $534 million of investor capital entered the offerings on Monday alone, marking the category’s 11th consecutive trading day of positive net flows.
Bitcoin hit an all-time high price above $73,000 in mid-March — about two months after the ETFs hit the market.
Industry watchers expect spot ETH ETFs to see only a fraction of the inflows BTC funds have seen, at least initially. Some have attributed that estimate, in part, to the funds not staking their ETH holdings.
Ahead of the opening bell, Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, noted that the premarket trading of the funds was “significantly lighter than pre-market trading of BTC ETPs on launch day.”
“Still, good to see trading activity in the biggest expected players pre-market,” he added.
Read more: Sizing up demand for the ‘sub-standard’ US spot ether ETFs
Vance Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures, said he believes institutional investors will seek exposure to both BTC — viewed as a safe haven against instability and inflation — as well as an Ethereum network offering a more “optimistic” outlook as a home for promising new apps.
“Just like how tech investors might purchase a basket of FAANG stocks, I think many investors will soon seek new types of crypto exposure beyond bitcoin ETFs,” Spencer added in an email. “The launch of the Ethereum ETF will kickstart that trend.”
