Monochrome to launch Australia’s first spot Ether ETF

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

The Ethereum (ETH) ETF will debut on the Cboe Australia, bringing the Monochrome Ethereum ETF with the ticker IETH to the market on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

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

Monochrome and its partner Vasco Trustees Limited filed an application for the listing of IETH on the Cboe Australia in early September, noting in an announcement that the spot Ethereum ETF would passively hold Ether.

That means the product would offer retail investors a regulated avenue to gain exposure to Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, currently over $316 billion.

IETH is a dual-access fund, allowing for both cash and in-kind redemptions. For investors, this means the ability to buy and cash out of the ETF with the underlying asset, Ether. Meanwhile, State Street Australia will serve as the fund’s administrator. Digital assets 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, giving the nod to funds that include spot Bitcoin ETFs by 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 several countries to greenlight spot crypto ETFs.

However, while the value of assets held in these funds in countries like Australia is small, the U.S. market has seen a notable rise in demand. Data from ETF tracking site SoSoValue shows the total net assets in U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs as of Oct. 11 was $58.66 billion. Ethereum had $6.74 billion.