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Seven ethereum spot ETF applicants amended their registration statements with the SEC on June 21, raising expectations of a trading launch in early July.
Franklin Templeton, VanEck, Invesco Galaxy, BlackRock, 21Shares and Fidelity filed updated S-1 filings for their respective funds.
Grayscale filed an amended S-3 filing for its ethereum Trust and an additional amended S-1 filing for its mini ethereum Trust. Bitwise did not amend its registration statement.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas continued to predict July 2 as a higher or lower date for the funds' launch following the latest filings, saying:
“Anyway, that's basically a summary. The ball is now in the SEC’s court.”
He also maintained his view that ethereum ETFs are unlikely to attract more than 20% of bitcoin ETFs' AUM.
Revealed rates
Franklin Templeton disclosed a 0.19% sponsor fee in the updated filing. The company will waive the fee on the first $10 billion in assets for six months. Meanwhile, VanEck revealed a similar 0.20% sponsor fee, which aims to waive the first $1.5 billion in assets until an unspecified date in 2025.
Balchunas believes the low fees will pressure BlackRock to also announce sponsorship fees of less than 30 basis points for its fund. Notably, both BlackRock and Fidelity have yet to disclose sponsor fees for their ETFs.
Experts believe BlackRock's fees, in particular, will be a key detail that could lead to greater competition between the companies. Balchunas said the asset manager's fee is the most important missing detail besides the launch date.
According to the analyst:
“(BlackRock's) fee is the sun around which the rest will need to orbit.”
The launch of bitcoin spot ETFs in January notably led to a “fee war” between issuers, each vying to offer competitively low fees. Currently, spot fees for bitcoin ETFs largely range between 0.19% and 0.39%, although Grayscale's GBTC has a higher fee of 1.5%.
Seed investments
Invesco Galaxy disclosed an initial $100,000 transaction on June 17 in which the initial investor purchased 4,000 shares at $25 per share.
Grayscale revealed a $100,000 initial share purchase for its ethereum mini trust. On May 31, the sponsor purchased 10,000 shares at $10 each.
Fidelity said its initial equity investor, FMR Capital, purchased 125,000 shares at $37.99 per share on June 4, contributing $4.7 million to the trust.
Meanwhile, BlackRock previously reported $10 million in seed funding for its ETF.
