Hashdex, a Brazillian investment firm, has withdrawn its application for a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund, according to a recent filing.
The firm jumped into the Ethereum ETF race back in November, with the Nasdaq exchange filing the application with the SEC.
The ETF proposed was supposed to offer investors exposure to both spot Ether and futures-based Ethereum contracts. The unique structure of the product made it an outlier among a slew of spot ETF proposals.
Tomiwabold OlajideThe filing stated that the inclusion of futures contracts would reduce dependence on the spot market, thus mitigating some market manipulation risks.
The SEC delayed its decision on Hashsex's Ethereum proposal on March 19. Back then, the SEC was widely expected to reject spot Ethereum ETF. Notably, leading analyst ETF James Seyffart predicted that only Hashdex's application would be approved due to its unique structure if the spot applications were to be denied.
Earlier this month, the regulator finally approved multiple spot Ethereum ETF applications, including the one from BlackRock. However, Hashdex's 19b-4 form did not get the green light from the SEC.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team