Bitwise, a leading wealth manager, has made history by launching the first U.S. spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and publicly disclosing the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) addresses used for storing its Ethereum tokens.
This move highlights Bitwise’s commitment to transparency in the crypto space.
Bitwise’s new ETHW fund launched on Tuesday, and shortly before trading began, the company published five ENS addresses.
ENS tags simplify the typically long and complex Ethereum addresses into more readable formats, such as “abc.eth.”
This step mirrors Bitwise’s earlier commitment to transparency in January when it revealed public Bitcoin (BTC) addresses for its spot BTC ETF.
Bitwise has pledged to add more addresses as the fund grows, enabling users and investors to track Ether-related activities on the blockchain.
This transparency allows anyone to verify ETHW’s holdings and flows directly, facilitating the creation of public dashboards and smart contracts utilizing the available ENS records.
The launch of ETHW was met with enthusiasm from the ENS protocol, which praised the move on social media, calling ETHW the “most crypto-native ETF.”
The excitement extended to the broader market, where nine spot Ethereum ETFs from eight issuers recorded over $361 million in trading volume within the first 90 minutes. Ethereum funds accounted for more than 55% of Bitcoin ETF volumes during this period.
VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, observed that Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE) was responsible for approximately 24% of the day’s spot ETH ETF activity.
Most of the trading volume appeared to come from Grayscale selling, but a clearer picture was expected to emerge as data continued to aggregate.
Despite the flurry of activity, Ethereum’s market price remained stable. Market observers speculated on potential price movements, with no clear consensus on whether Ether would rise or fall in response to the ETF launches.
“Predicting whether ETH will skyrocket is challenging. The reality is no one knows, so we can only look at trends and previous price action,” said Rick Bagshaw, Chief Marketing Officer of P2P, in an email to crypto.news.
