Nasdaq has filed Form 19b-4 with the SEC for approval to list and trade shares of the Canary HBAR ETF, linked to Hedera's HBAR token.
Nasdaq Expands into Crypto ETFs
The Canary HBAR ETF aims to track the spot price of the HBAR token, currently the 19th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization on CoinGecko. This move follows Canary Capital's plea for approval of the HBAR investment product in the US in November 2024. Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted that Canary Capital is also advancing a spot Litecoin ETF, likely nearing SEC approval.
SEC's Position and Crypto ETF Prospects
This year, Canary Capital extended its ETF ambitions by filing for spot XRP and Solana ETFs. The SEC has acknowledged the XRP ETF filing, and experts expect the regulator to approve it by the last quarter of 2025. During the Biden administration, US authorities were cautious about crypto-based ETFs, expressing concerns over market volatility and investor protection. The hesitation lifted in January last year when the SEC approved 12 spot Bitcoin ETFs. Bloomberg analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas estimate a 65% chance of HBAR ETF approval, making it the least likely among recently proposed crypto ETFs.
Current Status of BTC and ETH ETFs
According to SoSoValue data, spot Bitcoin ETFs have reported a fourth consecutive day of net outflows. The week's outflows totaled $559.41 million, bringing the two-week total to $1.14 billion. The exception was BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust posting $21.64 million in net inflows. On the opposite side, Ethereum-based funds narrowly avoided a second week of net outflows, showing a weekly gain of $1.61 million. The Bitwise Ethereum ETF was the only one to see significant movement, logging $8.92 million in outflows after a week of neutral trading activity.
Nasdaq's initiative for listing an HBAR-based ETF signals increasing interest in crypto ETFs among traditional financial institutions, despite regulators’ and investors’ cautious stance.
