30th September 2023 – (New York) Financial services firm Valkyrie Funds LLC announced on Friday that it will temporarily cease buying ethereum for its Valkyrie Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF and unwind any existing positions already acquired. This development poses a challenge to their ambition of becoming the first to introduce an exchange-traded fund (ETF) linked to the cryptocurrency ethereum to the market.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Valkyrie stated, “The Fund will not purchase ether futures contracts until the effectiveness of an amendment to the Fund’s registration statement contemplating the addition of ether futures contracts to the principal investment strategy of the Fund.” They further added, “Until such time, the Fund will unwind any existing positions in ether futures contracts.”
Valkyrie had announced on Thursday that they had received approval to acquire ethereum futures contracts, as part of the conversion of an existing ETF solely tied to Bitcoin to include ethereum. This move would have marked the first in a series of ETFs offering exposure to “ether.”
A spokeswoman for Valkyrie declined to comment at this time but mentioned that a press release with further details would be released shortly.
As of now, the Securities and Exchange Commission has not provided immediate comments on the matter. On a separate note, VanEck, ProShares, and Invesco have all filed applications to list various ETFs linked to ethereum. Traders and media reports anticipate their launch commencing from Monday onwards.