Monochrome to launch Australia’s first spot Ether ETF

Monochrome Asset Management will launch Australia’s first spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund on Tuesday.

Ethereum (ETH) ETF will launch on Cboe Australia, ticker symbol IETH Monochrome Ethereum ETF on Tuesday, October 15.

IETH launches a few months after Monochrome announced its spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF, which launched in August. Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) held approximately 167 Bitcoins worth AUD 15 million.

Monochrome and its partner Vasco Trustees Limited filed for IETH to list on Cboe Australia in early September, stating in an announcement that the Ethereum ETF would passively hold Ether.

This means the product will offer retail investors a regulated way to access Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, which currently exceeds $316 billion.

IETH is a dual-access fund that allows both cash and in-kind payments. For investors, this means the ability to purchase and cash out the ETF with the underlying asset Ether. Meanwhile, State Street Australia will act as manager of the fund. Digital asset custody provider BitGo and crypto exchange Gemini are the fund’s custody services providers.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first spot crypto ETFs in the U.S. in January 2024, approving funds that include spot Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and Grayscale.

The SEC went on to approve spot Ethereum ETFs in May, with trading going live in July. Hong Kong and Australia are among the few countries that have given the green light to crypto ETFs.

However, although the value of assets held in these funds is small in countries such as Australia, there has been a noticeable increase in demand in the US market. Data from ETF tracking site SoSoValue shows total net assets in U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs as of October 11 at $58.66 billion. Ethereum had $6.74 billion.