Bitwise becomes first US ETF to publish Ethereum addresses

Bitwise has revealed several ENS addresses used to store ethereum tokens for its eth spot ETF, which launched on Tuesday.

Bitwise became the first U.S. ethereum (eth) spot ETF issuer to publish wallets after committing to transparency for its ETHW fund. The asset manager made a similar move in January when it revealed public bitcoin (btc) addresses for the assets backing the BITB btc spot ETF.

Five addresses were assigned ethereum Name Service (ENS) labels x.com/BitwiseInvest/status/1815716188447482341″ target=”_blank” rel=””>aware Shortly before ETHW and eight other funds went public, ENS subnodes simplify ethereum addresses, which are often long and difficult to read. Instead of an alphanumeric sequence, the ENS protocol assigns a shorter label, such as “abc.eth,” to an address.

Bitwise has pledged to add more addresses as the fund grows so that users and investors can track their Ether-related activity on-chain.

“This is the kind of transparency that only cryptocurrencies make possible. It allows anyone to verify ETHW holdings and flows directly on the blockchain, and allows people to easily create public dashboards or write smart contracts that use the available ENS ledgers,” reads an excerpt from the announcement.

The upgrade received applause from the ENS protocol. “ETHW is now the most crypto-native ETF,” ENS tweeted on x.com/ensdomains/status/1815718780494135396″ target=”_blank” rel=””>x saying.

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Bitwise, competitors reached a trading volume of $361 million in 90 minutes

Nine ethereum spot ETFs from eight issuers attracted over $361 million in trading volume in the first hour and a half since launch. Ether funds accounted for over 55% of bitcoin ETF volume in the same opening hour.

VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, noted that Grayscale’s ethereum Trust (ETHE) accounted for roughly 24% of Tuesday’s spot eth ETF activity so far. The bulk of the trading appeared to be coming from Grayscale’s sales, but ETF data is typically aggregated the following day, meaning a clearer picture should emerge on Wednesday.

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Meanwhile, ethereum's market price was largely unaffected by the news and Wall Street transactions. Many speculated on how Ether might react, either with a price increase or a drop.

“Predicting whether the price of eth will skyrocket is challenging. The reality is that no one knows, so we can only look at trends and past price action,” P2P marketing director Rick Bagshaw told crypto.news via email.