Asset management giant VanEck submits Ethereum ETF application to the US SEC, which may become the first Ethereum ETF in the United States!

According to a public regulatory filing on Friday, asset management giant VanEck has submitted an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an Ethereum ETF called "VanEck Ethereum Trust."

This is their first Ethereum ETF application. If approved, it will become the first Ethereum ETF in the U.S. stock market and will be traded on the Cboe BZX exchange.

So far, the SEC has not approved any exchange-traded funds tied to the value of cryptocurrencies. Last month, the SEC announced that it would postpone its decision on VanEck's bitcoin ETF proposal until June. Canadian regulators approved several bitcoin and ethereum ETFs earlier this year.

Ethereum has recently hit new highs on multiple metrics, and several outspoken leaders in the cryptocurrency space, such as Mark Cuban, have stated that they believe ETH’s market cap will surpass BTC in the long run.

So far, despite having the highest hash rate and market cap, Bitcoin is still lacking in terms of use cases. It is mainly used as a store of value and a medium of exchange, but new cryptocurrencies can do a lot of things that Bitcoin cannot.

Ethereum’s EVM supports native smart contracts and tokens, which opens up endless possibilities — decentralized exchanges (like the increasingly popular Uniswap), stablecoin tokens (like USDT or USDC) secured by the Ethereum blockchain, and more.

Ethereum currently holds only about 37% of Bitcoin’s value, but it has over 59% of the transaction volume and a whopping 570% of transaction record counts. This is because decentralized exchanges built on Ethereum and other blockchains such as Binance Smart Chain allow people to trade a wide range of tokens, not just the underlying gas token.

This is not currently possible with Bitcoin. Even if it were, Bitcoin’s transaction fees would be prohibitively high for the average user. With the advent of Ethereum 2.0, Ethereum looks like an extremely attractive investment for traders around the world.

An Ethereum ETF would allow retail traders to buy and sell ETH directly in their brokerage accounts. This would open up a whole new world of demand, as many retailers who don’t have the ability or technical expertise to purchase Ethereum would be able to do so with the click of a button, using existing interfaces they know and love.

Additionally, the regulatory framework surrounding ETFs would be clearer than the murky tax implications of buying cryptocurrencies directly. It would also make it easier for institutions to buy Ethereum, as they could keep it on their books and pay off capital gains taxes in the usual structured way. The implications of crypto ETFs are far-reaching.

If a Bitcoin ETF is approved, this Ethereum ETF is likely to be approved as well. In the past few months, we have seen signs that the traditional financial industry is warming up to the cryptocurrency space, with the S&P DJI launching a Bitcoin and Ethereum index earlier this week.