- Fidelity Investments amends its SEC Form S-1, progressing its Ethereum ETF with a $4.7 million initial purchase.
- The purchase facilitated the acquisition of 1,250 Ether tokens, setting the foundation for the forthcoming ETF’s assets.
Fidelity Investments has submitted an amendment to its Form S-1 Registration Statement with the SEC, advancing its plans to offer an Ethereum ETH ETF. This update is a step towards making the fund available for public trading.
The latest update to the filing, submitted on June 21, reveals that FMR Capital, associated with Fidelity, has acquired 125,000 shares, each priced around $38. This total investment of $4.7 million was utilized to purchase 1,250 Ether tokens, intended to establish the asset foundation for the ETF.
The Filing also Confirms that Fidelity will not Engage in Ethereum Staking
According to the document, the trust managing the ETF will not participate in the proof-of-stake validation process on the Ethereum network, nor will it attempt to earn additional Ether or generate other income from its Ether holdings.
The Trust will not participate in the proof-of-stake validation mechanism of the Ethereum network (i.e., the Trust will not “stake” its ether) to earn additional ether or seek other means of generating income from its ether holdings.
Notably, Fidelity’s updated document does not include information about the ETF’s fee structure. This absence follows a pattern seen across several ETF providers who have yet to disclose their fee strategies.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas discussed this trend on X, suggesting that issuers might be waiting to set their fees, possibly in response to decisions made by competitors like BlackRock. BlackRock has also recently updated its S-1 form for an ETH spot ETF, showing a seed capital investment of around $10 million, but it too omitted details on fees.
BlackRock is in.. no fee posted but they did report seeding with $10m (altho I think that may have been known already in prev filing). Anyway that's basically a wrap. Ball in SEC's court now. pic.twitter.com/nbYoJo8Xj4
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 21, 2024
Eric Balchunas also reaffirmed his expectation that Ethereum spot ETFs might start trading in the United States by July 2, 2024, if approved by the SEC. He mentioned that the latest amendments to the S-1 forms mean the SEC must now decide whether to request any final changes before granting approval.
Next step: we will see a bunch of amended S-1s filed today, prob later this afternoon. Then ball's in SEC's court to let issuers know about any final changes and effectiveness (aka final approval). We holding the line with July 2nd as our over/under for eth ETFs launch date. https://t.co/EmqCVsE0Qe
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 21, 2024
These developments highlight the ongoing efforts by major financial institutions to integrate cryptocurrency-based products into conventional financial markets. Fidelity’s and other firms’ movement towards launching ETH ETFs is indicative of the increasing acceptance and institutional interest in cryptocurrencies as investment vehicles.
Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading around $3,511, within a day’s range of $3,461.51 to $3,530.94 and a 52-week range of $1,523.78 to $4,091.28. With a market cap of $422.32 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $13.60 billion, Ethereum has shown a 15.82% increase over the past month but a 6.99% decrease over the past week.
Despite recent declines, its year-to-date performance is up by 54.03%. Technical indicators suggest mixed sentiment with strong sell signals on a daily and weekly scale. Short-term predictions indicate that if ETH can break and sustain above the $3,530 resistance level, it might reach $3,600; otherwise, it may retrace to around $3,460.
