In a whirlwind of activity, Fidelity, a prominent asset management firm with $4.5 trillion in assets, has followed in the footsteps of BlackRock by applying for its own Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). The filing, submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), proposes the creation of the Fidelity Ethereum Fund, which would be listed and traded on the Cboe BZX Exchange. Fidelity’s move comes as no surprise, as it recognizes the lack of a low-risk avenue for US investors to gain exposure to ETH. The filing argues that existing methods for accessing digital assets come with various risks, including counter-party risk, legal uncertainty, and technical risk. In contrast, European investors have access to regulated products that provide exposure to a wide range of spot crypto assets. Fidelity suggests that if an Ether ETF had been available to US citizens, losses incurred from now-defunct firms like FTX, Celsius Network, and BlockFi would have been significantly lower. This filing by Fidelity marks the seventh application for an Ether ETF, joining the ranks of other firms such as VanEck, 21Shares, ARK Invest, Hashdex, Grayscale, and Invesco Galaxy.
