Ether futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States had a slow first day of trading with less-than-stellar trading volumes reported across the board. A total of nine Ether futures ETFs were launched on Monday, with trading volumes staying below $2 million on debut.

Grayscale, which has been trying to turn its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an ETF, is now planning to do the same for its Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), aiming to turn it into a spot Ethereum ETF.

UBS Asset Management, a global giant in the fund industry, has started its first “live pilot” of a money market fund that is tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Ether Futures ETF Volumes Fail to Impress on Debut
• Grayscale Eyes Spot Ethereum ETF Conversion for Its Ethereum Trust
• UBS Pilots Tokenized Money Market Fund on Ethereum

Ether Futures ETF Volumes Fail to Impress on Debut

Ether futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States had a slow first day of trading with less-than-stellar trading volumes reported across the board. A total of nine Ether futures ETFs were launched on Monday, with trading volumes staying below $2 million on debut.

Five of these funds will invest only in ether futures, while the other four will have a combination of bitcoin and ether futures. One of these funds, BTF, which was formerly a bitcoin-only fund by Valkyrie, is changing its name and strategy to include ether. The other funds are all new entrants.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented that the Ether Futures ETFs had “pretty meh volume” as a group. One of the more popular ETFs, EFUT by VanEck, had a trading volume of only $425,000, with an average price of $17 per share and about 25,000 shares traded.

In comparison, ProShares’ Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), had a trading volume of over $1 billion on its debut day back in October 2021, although it launched during a crypto bull market.

Grayscale Eyes Spot Ethereum ETF Conversion for Its Ethereum Trust

Grayscale, which has been trying to turn its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an ETF, is now planning to do the same for its Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), aiming to turn it into a spot Ethereum ETF.

NYSE Arca has filed a 19b-4 with the SEC to make the conversion, in a move that came shortly after various Ether futures ETFs were launched on US exchanges and failed to impress with low trading volumes.

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonneshein described the move as the “natural next step in the product’s evolution.”

ETHE is the largest global investment product for Ethereum, currently holding 2.5% of all ether in circulation. The fund was launched in 2019 and is now trading at a 30% discount to net asset value, with $5.14 billion worth of ETH in the fund, but its shares totaling just $3.6 billion.

The conversion into an ETF would shares to be directly redeemable for the underlying ether, likely bringing the net asset value and share price to parity.

UBS Pilots Tokenized Money Market Fund on Ethereum

UBS Asset Management, a global giant in the fund industry, has started its first “live pilot” of a money market fund that is tokenized on the Ethereum blockchain.

The pilot lets UBS Asset Management experiment with different fund operations on-chain, such as buying and selling shares. UBS has used its own tokenization service, UBS Tokenize, to initiate the pilot of the fund.

Thomas Kaegi, head of UBS Asset Management in Singapore and Southeast Asia, said the move is a “key milestone in understanding the tokenization of funds, building on UBS’s expertise in tokenizing bonds and structured products.”

In November of last year, UBS introduced the first digital bond in the world traded and bleared on both a blockchain and a traditional exchange, while in December it launched a $50 million tokenized fixed rate note. Earlier this year, the firm issued a 200 million yuan in entirely digital structured notes on behalf of a third party.

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