Fidelity amends Ether ETF Filing, discloses $4.7M in seed capital
Investment giant Fidelity has again updated its application for a spot Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In a June 21 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Fidelity has amended its Form S-1 Registration Statement, which is required to register investments for public sale.
The new filing reveals that FMR Capital, an affiliate of Fidelity, purchased 125,000 shares at a cost of $38 to seed the funds’ basket with $4.7 million. The money was used to purchase 1,250 Ether (ETH).
In addition, Fidelity confirmed that it will not engage in ETH staking. Staking services were removed from the company’s initial proposal a month ago on May 21.
“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,” reads the filing.
The SEC has approved a rule change allowing the listing and trading of eight spot Ether ETFs from major asset managers, including VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy and Bitwise. The ETFs still require SEC approval for their S-1 forms before they can begin trading.
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According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, more asset managers are expected to amend their filings on June 21. The analyst predicts the funds’ debut on July 2. Balchunas wrote on X:
“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.”
Bitwise has also updated its proposal with the SEC. On June 19, the asset manager included a potential $100-million investment in the ETF from Pantera Capital upon its trading launch.
Another asset manager seeking regulatory approval is Hashdex. On June 18, the company proposed creating a combined spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether ETF on the Nasdaq exchange. A few weeks before this filing, Hashdex dropped plans to offer a sole Ether ETF.
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