Grayscale, the company behind the world’s largest crypto funds, has now moved to convert its Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) into a spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF.
Since the announcement, shares for ETHE have shot up 2.71% on the day.
Grayscale’s Pivot to Ethereum
Per a press release shared by Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnhenshein, the conversion to an ETF would mark the “final stage” of the Ethereum Trust’s planned lifecycle since launching in March 2019.
“At Grayscale, our unwavering commitment is to offer investors transparent and regulated access to crypto through product structures that are familiar,” said Sonnhenshein in a statement.
An ETF – or “exchange-traded fund” – is a stock index that tracks the price of an underlying asset or basket of assets, such as cryptocurrency. A spot Ethereum ETF would market sell shares to investors that were each backed by a fixed amount of ETH held by the fund or a partnering custodian.
In its current form, shares for ETHE aren’t easily redeemable for ETH, creating discrepancies between the price of its shares and the ETH that backs them. Based on current prices, the fund carries over $5.1 billion worth of ETH versus just $3.6 billion in share value.
The share discount creates a juicy opportunity for investors: if the fund’s conversion to an ETF is approved, share value will be restored to parity with the fund’s assets, producing major profits for existing holders.
Grayscale is the fifth firm to file for a spot in Ethereum ETF in the past month, following filings from Ark/21Shares, HashDex, VanEck, and Galaxy/Invesco.
Grayscale has already fought for years to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot Bitcoin ETF, but has continuously been stonewalled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Back in August, Grayscale won its year-long lawsuit against the SEC, with the court declaring that the agency’s refusal to approve a spot ETF was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Futures Ethereum ETFs
Last month, Grayscale also filed for a futures Ethereum ETF, joining over a dozen other firms to apply for such a product in recent months. Futures ETFs are backed by cash-settled futures contracts rather than actual ETH, and are viewed to have less bullish implications for the underlying asset’s price.
The first set of futures ETH ETFs launched on Monday, with Valkyrie’s ETF leading for trading volume within hours of their opening. However, their opening volume pales in comparison to that of ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF in October 2021, which amassed $500 million of volume in one day.
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