VanEck plans to waive fees for potential spot Ethereum ETF at the outset

Fund manager VanEck plans to initially waive fees for its potential spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund to stay competitive, its executive said on Tuesday.

Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, wrote in an X post citing his comment to ETF.com that the firm “aims to be a leader on crypto ETF fees even if it means we lose money at the outset.”

“The plan is to make it up on volume; in this case, decentralized finance volume,” he said, adding that the company hopes to encourage more investors to “explore the potential role Ethereum can play within their investment portfolio.”

Sigel’s comment comes as VanEck filed a Form 8-A for its Ethereum product on Tuesday, reflecting further progress on a spot ether ETF.

Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a post on X that VanEck's filing of the new form was “just part of [the] process.”

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved 19b-4 forms for eight spot ether ETFs. However, the regulator must still authorize the registration statements to take effect before trading can commence.