Earlier in the day, BlackRock registered corporate entity “iShares Ethereum Trust” in Delaware, the first hint that a filing for a spot Ethereum ETF filing was imminent.
Blackrock’s plans for a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) has now been confirmed, per a 19b-4 form filing submitted to the United States Securities and Exhange Commission on Nov. 9.
Nasdaq filed the 19b-4 form to securities regulator on behalf of the $9 trillion asset management firm for a proposed ETF called the shares Ethereum Trust.
The move signals BlackRock’s intention to expand beyond Bitcoin with its ETF aspirations.
Earlier on Nov. 9, it emerged that BlackRock registered corporate entity “iShares Ethereum Trust” in Delaware, the first hint that a spot Ethereum ETF filing could be imminent.
UPDATE: BlackRock #Ethereum ETF confirmed. They just submitted a 19b-4 filing with Nasdaq pic.twitter.com/pLhuhhK7jo
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 9, 2023
BlackRock and other financial firms have expressed interest in cryptocurrency-backed ETFs over the last few months.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noted that there are at least five firms in the running to win the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval for a spot Ethereum ETF.
Related: Ethereum futures ETFs garner lukewarm reception on first day of trading
Among them are VanEck, ARK 21Shares, Invesco, Grayscale and Hashdex.
There are 5 other live spot Eth filings that i'm aware of:@vaneck_us @ARKInvest/ @21Shares @hashdex @InvescoUS/ @galaxyhq
andddd @Grayscale's filing to convert $ETHE.In no particular order.
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 9, 2023
Ether (ETH) spiked 8.9% to $2080 on the news that BlackRock is moving forward its plans for aniShares Ethereum Trust and is up 10.1% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
The price surge has helped ETH claw back some market dominance against Bitcoin (BTC), which has outperformed ETH in recent months.
ETH’s market dominance now sits at 17%, up 1.3% percentage points prior to the news.