The appetite for cryptocurrency investment products shows no signs of slowing down. In a phenomenon already dubbed “ETFtober,” this week has seen intense regulatory activity, with at least five new crypto ETF filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This flood of filings comes despite the U.S. government shutdown, which, while it seems to have frozen the agency’s decision-making, has not stopped fund managers.
The most recent news came from VanEck, which filed an S-1 form on Thursday for the “VanEck Lido Staked Ethereum ETF.” This product will seek to track the performance of stETH, Lido’s liquid staking token, allowing the fund to earn staking rewards.
At the same time, issuers are exploring more exotic products. The firm 21Shares filed an application for a leveraged ETF that will offer double (2x) exposure to the daily performance of the HYPE token, native to Hyperliquid. Bloomberg ETF expert Eric Balchunas described this trend as a “real gold rush.”
The first is the “ARK Bitcoin Yield ETF,” designed to generate income through Bitcoin-based yield strategies, such as selling options. The other two, “ARK DIET Bitcoin 1” and “ARK DIET Bitcoin 2,” offer different levels of downside protection (50% and 10%, respectively) in exchange for limiting participation in the asset’s upside.
Other proposals add to this list, such as Volatility Shares, which applied for a range of 3x and 5x leveraged ETFs linked to cryptocurrencies, and an update from VanEck for its Solana Staking ETF.
Experts like Nate Geraci, president of Nova Dius, have pointed out the irony of the situation: the government shutdown, caused by “growing fiscal debt and the usual political theater,” is holding back precisely the products from an industry (crypto) that seeks to be an alternative to that system.
