First Mover Americas: Ether, Lido DAO, Arbitrum Gain on Possibility of ETH ETF

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Ether (ETH) and native tokens of applications built on Ethereum surged in the past 24 hours as traders bet on the possibility of an ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) following the expected approval of a bitcoin ETF in the U.S. Ether exchanged hands over $2,400 in early European hours Wednesday, up 5% in 24 hours. LDO, the governance token of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind liquid-staking system Lido, gained over 20% while the ARB token of Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum rose almost 17%. Bitcoin fell 2.2%. BlackRock has filed an S-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its iShares Ethereum Trust, a spot ether ETF.

With the crypto industry anticipating the SEC approving a spot bitcoin ETF as early as today, BlackRock (BLK) and ARK 21Shares both cut the fees for their proposed ETFs, joining rivals who announced reductions yesterday. BlackRock said it will charge 25 basis points on net asset value in a new S-1 filing on Wednesday, having previously revealed a fee of 30 basis points on Monday. The asset-management giant is offering a promotional rate of 12 basis points on the first $5 billion during the first 12 months after listing. ARK 21Shares reduced the fee by 4 basis points to 0.21%, having previously said it would charge 0.25%. The firms are waiving the fee entirely for the first six months or the first $1 billion in assets, whichever comes first.

Price volatility following a series of fake tweets from the SEC’s X account caused nearly $90 million worth of bitcoin long and short positions to be liquidated, showcasing manipulation risks associated with the industry. Hackers caught hold of the SEC’s X account on Tuesday, using it to post a nod for the much-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval decision. It later posted “$BTC,” before both tweets were promptly deleted. Those tweets caused the bitcoin price to immediately spike to $47,680 from the $46,800 level. It then fell as low as $45,400 as the tweets were found to be fake.

Chart of the Day

• The chart shows the dollar value of assets managed by ProShares' bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded fund, which trades on the NYSE under the ticker BITO.
• The AUM rose to a record $2 billion on Tuesday.
• The spot ETF narrative seems to have galvanized investor interest in exchange-traded products tied to BTC.
• Source: Ycharts

- Omkar Godbole

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