Wall Street firms launched bitcoin exchange-traded funds just a few weeks ago. Now, they want to offer everyday investors funds holding a smaller and more volatile crypto asset, the Wall Street Journal reported. At least 10 firms including BlackRock and Fidelity Investments have filed applications to launch what would be the first U.S.-listed ETFs holding ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency. As with bitcoin and other ETFs, the firms would earn management fees for any investments people make. Ether, the in-house token on the Ethereum blockchain, surged above $3,000 last Tuesday for the first time since April 2022 in anticipation of the potential approvals. That gave it a market cap of about $360 billion, compared with bitcoin’s more than $1 trillion valuation. The Securities and Exchange Commission faces a May deadline to approve or reject the first application for a spot ether ETF, and is expected to simultaneously apply the same decision to the other applications. Critics say a greenlight could pave the way for ETFs backed by more speculative crypto assets, which they say would expose investors to more risks than they might realize.
