After Bitcoin, Financial Giants Rush to Apply for Ethereum Futures ETFs

The applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs by BlackRock and other financial giants in mid-June 2023 brought strong optimism to the broader crypto community. Now, looking beyond Bitcoin, some of the financial giants are now applying for Ethereum futures ETFs.

Six companies, including Volatility Shares, Bitwise, Roundhill, VanEck, Proshares, and Grayscale, have applied for Ethereum futures ETFs. Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, reported the applications on August 1st.

Here's fresh update of the Ether Futures ETF Race, which now has SIX in the running.. nice job by @JSeyff for putting together so quickly pic.twitter.com/G1rwwfaFoS

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) August 1, 2023

In their SEC filing on July 28, Volatility Shares proposed the Ether Strategy ETF. As part of this, they would invest in cash-settled Ether Futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), instead of directly investing in Ether.

After successfully launching the 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX), the first leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF in the country, Volatility Shares has now filed a new application. The new filing aims to correspond to two times the daily excess return of the S&P CME Bitcoin Futures Daily Roll Index. In his tweet earlier this week, Balchunas wrote:

“Interesting given SEC made some recent Ether filers withdrawal. But.. VolShares just got (against the odds) a 2x Bitcoin Futures ETF out so maybe they [are] feeling confident [the] time is right.”

Ethereum (ETH) Price Up 2%, But Options Market Tells Different Story

After some selling pressure earlier this week, there’s some ray of optimism with the Ethereum (ETH) price gaining more than 2% in the last 24 hours. As of press time, ETH is trading at $1,860 with a market cap of $225 billion.

Following Bitcoin’s recent drop to $29,000, the price of Ethereum also fell below $1,900. However, after a few days of being below $1,850, the price has slightly increased once again.

Also, Ethereum options data shows a negative bias for the ETH price action over the next six months. The six-month call-put skew for Ether, a measure of the difference between implied volatilities of call and put options expiring in 180 days, has dropped to -0.91, the lowest since June 15, according to crypto data provider Amberdata.

The negative value indicates a preference for put options, which allow the buyer the right (but not the obligation) to sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. A put buyer is essentially bearish on the market, while a call buyer is bullish.