Grayscale Pursues Sixth Altcoin ETF as Nasdaq Seeks to List Hedera Fund

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments is pushing forward with its offerings for altcoins, filing for approval of a new spot Hedera (HBAR) exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Monday. 

The Nasdaq Stock Market 19b-4 filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission marks Grayscale’s sixth altcoin-focused ETF. 

The SEC, under the leadership of acting chair Mark Uyeda, has already acknowledged and published filings for ETFs linked to altcoins, pointing to a more supportive stance toward altcoin-based investment products under a Trump administration.

“The biggest benefit to having a lot of smaller assets be approved for an ETF would be that it would pave the way for an index ETF,” Katalin Tischhauser, Head of Research at Sygnum Bank, told Decrypt.

A 19b-4 filing is part of a two-step process to propose a crypto ETF to the SEC, and once acknowledged by the agency, the filing will be published in the Federal Register, initiating the SEC's approval process.

Grayscale’s other spot ETF filings include tracking the performance of Polkadot (DOT), XRP, meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL).

Grayscale was one of the first to file to convert its XRP Trust and Dogecoin Trust into ETFs, and the SEC has already acknowledged those filings along with Solana ETF, adding them to the Federal Register. 

The filings for the Polkadot and Cardano ETFs are still in the early stages of regulatory review. 

The SEC’s review process typically lasts 45 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register, during which time the commission will consider the filings and invite public comments. 

Following this period, the SEC can either approve or reject the proposed rule changes or delay its decision, with the entire process potentially stretching to 240 days.

Grayscale is not the first asset manager to pursue a HBAR ETF. Last month, Nasdaq filed a 19b-4 form with the SEC to list a spot HBAR ETF on behalf of Canary Capital.

As of now, the SEC is still in the process of reviewing the application, and no official approval has yet been granted

Still, Bloomberg Senior ETF Analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart have pointed out that both Hedera and Litecoin have “higher odds than others [ETFs] of approval.”

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair