The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has confirmed receipt of the 19b-4 application for the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index ETF. This ETF will hold both spot Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, stated that the final deadline for SEC approval should be around the first week of March 2025.
Hashdex’s move to launch a fund holding both Bitcoin and Ethereum comes at a time when U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs are already trading, and Ethereum funds are set to follow soon. The approval would mark another milestone in a year filled with crypto fund firsts.
The first U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs received the SEC’s blessing in January, and spot Ether ETF launches are imminent as the agency works with fund issuers to finalize registration statements.
Hashdex’s strategic filing
The proposed Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF will invest in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) but will not invest in “crypto securities, tokenized assets, or stablecoins.”
The index that the fund will track had a roughly 70% weighting for BTC and 30% for ETH as of May 27.
Crypto assets meeting certain criteria, such as being listed on a U.S.-regulated platform or serving as the underlying asset for a derivative instrument listed on such a venue, could be added to the index.
Hashdex plans to shift the fund’s strategy if new assets meet the criteria, maintaining the proportion of Bitcoin and Ethereum as determined by the index. The filing states:
“The sponsor will employ a passive investment strategy that is intended to track the changes in the index regardless of whether the index goes up or down, meaning that the sponsor will not try to ‘beat’ the Index.”
However, the company has not yet submitted a registration statement, or S-1, for the planned ETF. Hashdex declined Cryptopolitan’s request to comment on about the SEC’s acknowledgment.
Earlier this year, Hashdex attempted to transition its Bitcoin futures ETF to one that also held Bitcoin directly. This effort came ahead of the U.S. spot BTC fund launches in January.
However, the company couldn’t transition in time for the debut of spot products on January 11, only gaining this capability later. Hashdex has stated that it is not looking to offer a U.S. ETF that solely invests in Ethereum.
Reporting by Jai Hamid
