Crypto Specialist Bitwise’s First-Ever Spot Ethereum ETF Receives Key SEC Approval
San Francisco • May 23, 2024
Bitwise Asset Management, the premier crypto specialist and largest crypto index fund manager in America, announced today the historic approval of the New York Stock Exchange’s 19b-4 filing for Bitwise’s first spot Ethereum ETF. Bitwise intends for the fund to begin trading once the SEC declares its S-1 Registration Statement effective.
“We’ve long said that Ethereum is the most exciting programmable blockchain and targets a completely different use case than bitcoin,” said Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan. “It’s the global supercomputer that’s home to many of crypto’s biggest real-world use cases. Thanks to today’s news, we’re much closer to offering investors professionally managed exposure to ETH, the asset that fuels the Ethereum blockchain, in a format that’s as familiar and easy to trade as a stock. That’s exciting progress indeed.”
Ethereum has become the foundation for some of the most popular applications of crypto today, from stablecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to decentralized finance and tokenization. In recent years, many of the world’s top global brands, including Nike, Starbucks, Tiffany & Co., and JPMorgan, have built projects on the Ethereum blockchain. The blockchain’s growing popularity has driven ETH, the asset that powers it, to a market cap of more than $450 billion—second only to Bitcoin among digital assets.
“We started Bitwise to give investors exposure to one of the greatest technological innovations in a generation: crypto,” said Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley. “Days like today reinforce the importance of that mission. It also gives us great hope as we witness crypto’s unflagging march to the mainstream. We look forward to a day soon when investors can readily access one of the most dynamic assets in crypto.”
Founded in 2017, Bitwise partners with more than 4,000 advisor teams, RIAs, family offices, and institutions to serve tens of thousands of investors. The firm today offers a suite of six crypto-linked ETFs, which would grow to seven with the addition of the spot Ethereum ETF, along with 13 other crypto investment products.
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(1) Source: CoinMarketCap as of May 21, 2024.
Bitwise Asset Management is a global crypto asset manager with more than $15 billion in client assets and a suite of over 30 crypto investment products spanning ETFs, separately managed accounts, private funds, hedge fund strategies, and staking. The firm has an eight-year track record and today serves more than 4,000 private wealth teams, RIAs, family offices and institutional investors as well as 15 banks and broker-dealers. The Bitwise team of over 125 technology and investment professionals is backed by leading institutional investors and has offices in San Francisco, New York, and London.
