21Shares, Ethereum spot ETF fee waiver for up to 6 months

Ahead of the launch of the Ethereum (ETH) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), U.S. asset management company 21 Shares has entered the fee competition.

According to the revised version of 21 Shares' securities report (S-1) released on the 17th (local time), the commission for '21 Shares Core ETH Spot ETF (CETH)' was set at 0.21%. In addition, we plan to waive all fees for up to six months after listing, or until the fund's management assets reach $500 million (about KRW 690.4 billion).



Comprising the S-1 revisions of ETH spot ETF managers, including 21Shares, the average fee for ETH spot ETF is around 0.20%. This figure is lower than the average fee of 0.25% for Bitcoin (BTC) spot ETF. VanEck plans to waive the Ethereum ETF fee (0.20%) for up to one year after listing or until the fund's operating assets reach $1.5 billion (about 2.0714 trillion won). Franklin Templeton and BlackRock set their fees at 0.19% and 0.25%, respectively.

Even just before the launch of the BTC spot ETF in January, fee competition attracted attention. Of the 12 BTC spot ETFs listed at the time, about half reduced or waived fees for investors. On the other hand, Grayscale set the commission for GBTC, the world's largest BTC spot ETF, at a whopping 1.5%, and eventually suffered from constant fund outflow. ETFs with the same underlying assets often compete based on fees because their product competitiveness is similar.

Meanwhile, experts predicted that up to $10 billion (approximately KRW 13.8097 trillion) of funds would be inflow within a few months after the launch of the ETH spot ETF, and that the price of ETH would likely hit an all-time high by the end of this year.

Reporter Lee Yeon-ju

juya@rni.kr