Bitcoin and Ethereum Joint ETF Could Come to US via Hashdex

We have spot Bitcoin ETFs trading in the United States, while Ethereum ETFs have been approved and should hit the market soon. What’s next? Possibly a joint ETF that includes both of the leading cryptocurrencies by market cap—if Hashdex has its way.

In a move potentially marking another significant step forward for crypto investment in the States, the crypto asset manager has filed an application for the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF.

If approved, it would be the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) to directly hold both spot Bitcoin and Ethereum in the American market.

The filing, submitted via Form 19b-4 with the Nasdaq, details a fund that tracks the Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI). The form states that the ETF will include cash holdings, with Coinbase Custody and BitGo designated as custodians if the fund is launched.

The NCI is a market-capitalization weighted index, meaning the fund would primarily hold Bitcoin (70.54%) and Ethereum (29.46%), mirroring the relative weightings of these two dominant cryptocurrencies.

This proposed ETF comes amid a year of milestones for crypto funds in the U.S. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally greenlit the first spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, and spot Ethereum ETFs received initial approvals in late May. SEC Chair Gary Gensler recently told a Senate committee that he anticipates that they will begin trading this summer.

While the Hashdex ETF focuses on Bitcoin and Ethereum for now, the filing clarifies that it would not invest in "crypto securities, tokenized assets or stablecoins."

However, the index could potentially incorporate additional crypto assets in the future, provided they meet specific criteria. These criteria could include being listed on a U.S.-regulated platform or serving as the underlying asset for a derivative instrument on such a venue.

Hashdex emphasizes a passive investment strategy for the ETF, meaning it aims to track the NCI's performance, regardless of market direction. This signifies an intention to provide investors with exposure to the overall cryptocurrency market represented by the index, rather than attempting to outperform it.

This filing follows Hashdex's previous efforts to transition its Bitcoin futures ETF to one holding physical BTC directly, mirroring the recent launches of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. However, the company was unable to secure approval before its competitors' launch in January.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noted on Twitter that the final SEC approval deadline for the joint Hashdex application should be around the first week of March 2025.

“There's language in here to allow the addition of other digital assets essentially as they are approved by the SEC,” he added.

Edited by Andrew Hayward