Investment management firm Hashdex has withdrawn its application for Ethereum spot trading funds
Investment management firm Hashdex has withdrawn its application for an Ethereum spot trading fund (ETF), according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
A May 28 filing reveals that Hashdex has withdrawn its request for a proposed rule change that would allow the Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF to debut. The proposal was removed on May 24, just one day after the FCA approved eight similar financial products.
There are no details on the reasons for this decision or whether Hashdex will resubmit its proposal. Cointelegraph contacted Hashdex but did not receive an immediate response.
On May 23, the SEC approved 19b-4 filings from VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy and Bitwise, paving the way for the ETFs to be listed and traded on their respective exchanges. The funds are expected to be released in June.
Unlike other applicants, Hashdex’s application for a spot ETF combined holdings of spot Ether with Ether futures contracts on the same commodity, seeking to mitigate potential manipulation.
Other filers, such as Fidelity, ARK 21Shares, and Franklin Templeton, have focused on spot Ether ETFs with late changes to their filings, such as removing support for Ether (ETH) in response to SEC comments.
Additionally, Hashdex ETFs sought to reflect daily fluctuations in the Nasdaq Ether reference price to address regulatory concerns regarding market manipulation. According to the initial September 2023 filing:
“Instead of holding 100% of ETH, which could make it more vulnerable to price manipulation in the spot market, the fund will hold a mix of spot ETH, Ether futures, and cash .”
Hashdex is among the issuers of spot Bitcoin ETFs approved in January. Similarly, the company’s Bitcoin fund used an alternative strategy from other asset managers. For example, Hashdex’s Bitcoin ETF did not rely on Coinbase’s watch sharing agreement, instead choosing to source spot BTC from physical exchanges within the CME market.
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