- VanEck announced last Friday that its futures-based Ethereum ETF, Ethereum Strategy ETF (EFUT), will cease trading on September 16 and will be liquidated on or around September 23.
- EFUT has seen a lack of investor interest since the July launch of the firm’s Ethereum spot ETF, VanEck Ethereum ETF (ETHV).
- VanEck’s decision reflects a broader trend in which spot-based crypto ETFs are now much preferred by investors over the older futures-based funds.
Asset management firm VanEck announced Friday that it has decided to shutter its futures-based Ethereum Strategy ETF (EFUT). VanEck says the fund will stop trading on September 16. The assets will then be liquidated and returned to investors on or around September 23.
VanEck cited insufficient investor demand as one of the reasons for shutting down the ETF, with investors preferring the firm’s spot Ethereum ETF, VanEck Ethereum ETF (ETHV), which launched in July.
Related: First Ether Fund Surpasses $1 Billion in Net Inflows, While Grayscale Continues with Outflows
Spot ETFs Dominating Older Futures-Based Funds
This move by VanEck is part of a larger trend within the crypto-ETF scene which has seen the newly launched spot ETFs attract much more investor interest than the older futures-based funds.
For some idea of the gulf in demand, consider this:
- VanEck’s futures-based EFUT has just US$21 million assets under management.
- The firm’s spot-based ETHV has around US$55 million AUM.
- EFUT has been trading for over 12 months longer than ETHV.
The gradual death of futures-based crypto ETFs was anticipated by Nate Geraci, President of the investment advisory firm The ETF Store, who accurately predicted on X / Twitter back in August of 2023 that if approved, the crypto spot ETFs would render the earlier ETFs obsolete:
If Grayscale wins lawsuit & if SEC allows both ETH futures ETFs & spot BTC ETFs, then have to assume spot ETH ETF would be approved as well. Obv lots of ‘ifs’, but that scenario would basically render all of these futures-based crypto ETFs obsolete.
Nate Geraci, President of The ETF StoreCommenting over the weekend on VanEck’s announced closure of EFUT, Geraci said it was “no surprise”:
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved nine spot Ethereum ETFs to start trading in July, these funds combined now have over US$6.9 billion (AU$10.3b) in assets under management (AUM), compared to just US$170 million (AU$254m) AUM in the futures-based funds.
Related: US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Account for Over 4% Of All BTC, Closing in On Satoshi’s Stack
According to The ETF Store, 13 of the 25 top-performing ETFs launched this year are crypto-based funds, with the top four all being Bitcoin spot ETFs.
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