Rise of Ether Futures ETFs Amidst Market Competition

In less than a week, eleven filings for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on Ether futures were submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

The most recent ProShares ETF application was submitted on August 3 and proposes a Bitcoin and Ether ETF with equal weight.

According to the filing, the fund will monitor “the performance of holding long positions in the nearest maturing monthly bitcoin and ether futures contracts.”

According to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, ProShares has submitted four separate filings for ethereum-based ETFs over the past few days, including a dual Bitcoin and ethereum futures strategy ETF, a short ethereum Strategy ETF, and an ethereum Strategy ETF.

There have been eleven filings for Ether-related ETFs in the past week, all for futures-based ETFs. Volatility Shares’ filing for the Volatility Shares Ether Strategy ETF on July 28 marked the beginning of the surge of ETF applications based on Ether.

Bitwise Asset Management, Roundhill Financial, Van Eck, ProShares, and Grayscale Investments all lodged new Ethereum futures applications on August 1, following Volatilty’s lead.

Notably, the SEC has never authorized an ETF that monitors contracts for Ether futures. Alternatively, Bitcoin futures ETFs have existed since October 2021.

If the SEC does not reject any of the applications, the Ether ETFs will launch 75 days after their respective filing dates, with the Volatility Shares ETF going live first on October 12.

The primary distinction between futures ETFs and spot ETFs is that futures ETFs track the price of futures contracts, while spot ETFs entail the issuer purchasing the underlying asset.

Spot ETFs are regarded as more legitimate because the fund manager purchases and holds the underlying asset. The flurry of applications for Ethereum-focused ETFs follows a flurry of filings by prominent asset management firms seeking to launch spot Bitcoin ETFs.

BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, is among those seeking to launch the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States.