WisdomTree Files To Withdraw Ethereum Trust Registration Statement – Details

American investment company WisdomTree has requested to withdraw its Ethereum Trust registration statement three years after submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This development comes a few hours after fellow asset manager VanEck closed down its Ethereum futures ETF citing a lack of demand.

In a filing on September 6, WisdomTree approached the SEC to retract the S-1 registration form of the exchange-traded fund known as “WisdomTree Ethereum Trust”. The American asset manager first filed this registration statement on May 27, 2021, seeking to launch an ETF that offered investors exposure to Ethereum but with lower costs and fewer liabilities. 

A statement from the application read:

In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Trust will hold ether and will value its Shares daily based on the [CF Ether-Dollar US Settlement Price], which is an independently calculated value based on an aggregation of executed trade flow of major ether spot exchanges.”

The “WisdomTree Ethereum Trust” was to be traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) with the proposed maximum aggregate offering price of $1,000,000. 

Three years later, WisdomTree has moved to withdraw the registration statement of this ETF alongside all relevant exhibits. The asset manager states that no securities in relation to the said application have been/will be sold to investors. In addition, WisdomTree has acknowledged that the filing fees for this registration statement, valued at $109.10, cannot be refunded. They have also requested that these fees be directed toward future use. 

As earlier stated, WisdomTree’s announcement comes shortly after VanEck unveiled plans to shut down its VanEck Ethereum Strategy ETF (EFUT), an investment fund based on Ethereum futures contracts. According to VanEck, this decision is based on an analysis of several factors including “performance, liquidity, assets under management, and investor interest”.  Trading activity on EFUT will come to a halt on September 16, followed by shares liquidation on or about September 23.

In other news, the Ethereum spot ETF market had recorded an outflow of $6 million in the last day according to data from Farside Investors. The total cumulative net flows of the nascent market now stand at -$568.5 million despite holding over 2% of the Ethereum market. Meanwhile, data from CoinMarketCap shows Ethereum trades at $2,237 following a 6.64% decline in the last day.