VanEick to Close Ethereum Futures ETF
Asset manager VanEik is closing its futures-based Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF), citing insufficient demand as spot kriptovalyutnogo ETFs dominate, according to a September 6 announcement.
VanEyck said it chose to close the fund based on factors including “performance, liquidity, assets under management and investor interest.”
Shares of the VanEck Ethereum Strategy ETF (EFUT) will cease trading on September 16 and fund assets will be released and returned to investors on or around September 23, according to the announcement.
The decision is “no surprise,” said Nate Gerasi, president of the ETF Store – an investment advisor – in an article posted on the X forum. In the year By 2023, Gerasi predicted that spot crypto ETFs would “essentially make all these forward-based crypto ETFs obsolete.”
“Estimating VanEck viewed EFUT primarily as a transaction cost,” added Geracchi.
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In the year EFUT, which launched in 2023, had just about $21 million in assets under management (AUM) as of Sept. 6, according to VanEck's website. The VanEck Ethereum ETF (ETHV) – the space ETH ETF VanEck launched in June – has more than $55 million in AUM.
In July, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the spot ether ETF to begin trading in the United States. Spot ETH ETFs now command roughly $6.5 billion in AUM, compared to less than $170 million in futures-based ETH ETFs, according to fund researcher Morningstar.
Funds launched nine positions on Ether ETFs in July. The largest – the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) – manages about $ 4.2 billion, according to Morningstar.
Futures are standardized contracts to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. Some ETFs use futures to replicate the performance of spot cryptocurrencies such as Ether or Bitcoin (BTC) in an integrated fashion.
Futures-based ETFs are generally smaller than spot cryptocurrency funds because futures typically expire monthly and must be rolled over into new contracts, resulting in additional costs.
Cryptocurrency ETFs took 13 of the year-to-date returns in 2024.
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