BlackRock recently registered its entity iShares Ethereum Trust as an exchange-traded funds registration, and Nasdaq reported this in a recent report filing. The backgrounds to this plan have been laid, and the news affected the cryptocurrency market as both major currencies rallied, and Ethereum (ETH) reached fresh highs above $2,000.
This news comes as a first affirmation that Ethereum-spot ETFs are imminent. Exchange-traded funds are unique digital products that allow direct investment to original crypto and eliminate the need to refer to data from futures but access real-time market prices. Investors have anticipated these products based on the significant benefits that they offer.
Nasdaq filing hinting at an Ethereum-spot ETF from BlackRock
As per the Nasdaq 19b-4 filing on November 9, BlackRock intends to present its iShares Ethereum Trust as an exchange-traded fund. Approval by the United States Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) for ETFs has been a keen interest as institutional investors seek to onboard cryptocurrencies based on this development.
The Nasdaq filing was to the securities regulatory in light of BlackRock, a $9 trillion asset management organization, plans on Ethereum-spot ETFs. As such, this confirms the intentions of BlackRock to go beyond Bitcoin ETFs and explore more opportunities with the product based on other cryptocurrencies.
Part of the filing quoted:
iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and an indirect subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (“BlackRock”), is the sponsor of the Trust (the “Sponsor”). The Shares will be registered with the SEC by means of the Trust’s registration statement on Form S-1 (the “Registration Statement”).
Nasdaq’s BlackRock Filing
The registration happened on Thursday, and reporting his analysis was Bloomberg’s expert ETF analyst, James Seyffart. Seyffart is an expert on ETFs who has reported essential information on the digital product, and his latest comments were based on the Nasdaq 19b-4 filing.
Ethereum ETF effect on the crypto market
Crypto-backed ETF interest has grown, witnessed by major players in the digital space, as over 12 other ETF approvals are pending from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
However, experts like Seyffart and his colleague, Eric Balchunas, commented on the expected approval of 9 out of the 12 pending approvals that could happen days leading to November 17. They also confirm that the chances of successful approval of these ETFs stand at 90%.
Seyffart mentions five other companies that have pending ETF approvals by the SEC, listing VanEck, Grayscale, Hashdex, Invesco, and ARK 21Shares. It’s noted that news on crypto-based events has always affected market prices, and ETFs have played a significant role in confirming this.
Ethereum saw a spike of over 10.71% in its market value, reaching a fresh high of $2,128 at the time of writing. This was higher than Bitcoin’s 0.25% increase tagged at $36,720. However, this BTC price is a correction from its spike to $38,000, which was seen hours after the Nasdaq filing.
Moreover, Bitcoin had been in the lead as the top-performing crypto in the past month, but Ethereum is currently clawing back dominance over the first-generation blockchain. Based on market analysis, Ethereum market dominance is recorded at 17% which is an increase of 1.3% amid the news announcement.
The outperformance by Ethereum has fostered a divergence of altcoins parallel rally with major currencies as some assets like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ripple‘s XRP saw a decline in their prices by over 3.5% and 4 31%, respectively. Shiba Inu (SHIB) also declined by 2.56%, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) recorded a decline of 3.77% in its market price, according to CoinMarketCap.
