After a long period of speculation and uncertainty, Spot Ethereum ETFs (exchange-traded funds) will officially commence trading next week, on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. This significant development was announced by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).
Five Spot Ethereum ETFs Go Live On Cboe Next Week
On Friday, July 19, the Chicago Board Options Exchange posted new issue notifications, disclosing the launch of highly anticipated Ether exchange-traded funds. The exchange declared that five spot Ethereum ETFs, including Fidelity (FETH), VanEck (ETHV), 21Shares (CETH), Invesco (QETH), and Franklin Templeton (EZET), are expected to launch next week Tuesday.
Each Cboe notification read:
We are pleased to announce that One (1) Exchange Traded Product (“ETP”) will be listed on Cboe and will begin trading as a new issue on July 23, 2024, pending regulatory effectiveness.
The announcement aligns with the most recent projection — in the long line of predictions — by Bloomberg ETF expert Eric Balchunas, who put forward a potential launch date of July 23, 2024. This came after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly asked issuers to submit their final S-1 filings.
The commission still needed to approve the S-1 forms in order for the issuers to register their spot Ethereum ETFs for public sale. However, it is worth mentioning that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the 19b-4 forms of ETH ETF issuers as far back as May 2024.
Furthermore, most of the ETH ETF issuers have disclosed the management fees on their funds, with most temporarily waiving or discounting their fees. It would be interesting to see how these fees factor into the distribution of the market share once the spot Ethereum ETFs begin trading.
Notably, asset management behemoth BlackRock intends to charge a 0.25% management fee for its spot ETH ETF, ETHA, according to its final S-1 registration statement. The firm, however, disclosed its intention to reduce the fee to 0.12% during the fund’s initial launch period — until the ETF has been in operation for 12 months or reaches $2.5 billion in net assets.
ETH Price At A Glance
The spot Ethereum ETF announcement barely made any impact on the price of Ether, which seems to be already priced in. As of this writing, the price of ETH stands around $3,485, reflecting a 2% increase in the last 24 hours.
The capital inflows into the spot Ethereum ETFs are expected to positively influence the price of the cryptocurrency — and possibly the general market. This projection is not too far-fetched, considering the apparent impact of spot ETFs on Bitcoin’s value so far in 2024.