Exciting news in the crypto ETF world! Nasdaq has officially taken a step forward by filing Form 19b-4 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They’re requesting the green light to list and trade shares of the Canary HBAR exchange-traded fund (ETF). This new investment product is designed to mirror the real-time price of Hedera’s HBAR token, a cryptocurrency that currently ranks as the 19th largest by market cap on CoinGecko.

According to Eric Balchunas, a seasoned ETF analyst at Bloomberg, this Nasdaq filing comes on the heels of Canary Capital’s updated S-1 form, which they submitted to the SEC on February 21st. Canary Capital initially signaled their interest in bringing an HBAR investment product to the US market back in November 2024, after first launching their HBAR Trust.

Interesting: Canary just filed an amended S-1 for their HBAR ETF, usually you only amend after comments from SEC. This echoes Litecoin, which also did ammendment. In flip, no 19b-4 yet. Need that to get that going. pic.twitter.com/hMU3Hetf1G

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) February 21, 2025

Nasdaq’s move reflects a broader trend of traditional financial players showing increasing interest in crypto ETFs. Balchunas also highlighted that Canary Capital is not stopping with HBAR; they’re also pushing forward with a spot Litecoin ETF, which is reportedly getting closer to potential SEC approval for trading.

SEC scrutiny and positive market sentiment on crypto ETFs

Canary Capital isn’t limiting its ETF aspirations to just HBAR and Litecoin. This year, they’ve broadened their horizons by submitting filings for spot XRP and Solana ETFs as well. The SEC has already acknowledged the XRP ETF application, and industry experts are feeling optimistic, predicting potential approval from regulators as soon as the last quarter of 2025.

During the current administration, US financial authorities initially approached crypto-based ETFs with caution, voicing concerns about market integrity, volatility, and the need for investor protection. However, a turning point arrived in January of last year when the SEC finally gave the go-ahead to 12 spot Bitcoin ETFs, effectively easing previous hesitations.

However, it’s worth noting that Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas estimate the HBAR ETF currently has a 65% chance of approval. This makes it appear to be the least likely to succeed among the recent wave of crypto ETF proposals. On the other hand, the Litecoin ETF is considered a frontrunner with a 90% approval probability, followed by Dogecoin at 75%, and Solana at 70%. The SEC’s deadline to make a decision on these filings is set for October 2025.

Despite the overall positive sentiment, regulatory ambiguity continues to loom over XRP, which remains caught in a lengthy legal dispute with the SEC concerning whether it should be classified as a security or a commodity.

Bitcoin ETFs face second consecutive week of outflows

Recent data from SoSoValue reveals that spot Bitcoin ETFs are experiencing a bit of a downturn. They’ve recorded net outflows for the fourth consecutive business day in the week ending February 21st, losing a total of $62.77 million. Looking at the bigger picture, the total outflows for the entire week reached $559.41 million, pushing the two-week outflow total to around $1.14 billion.

Interestingly, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) bucked the trend, actually seeing $21.64 million in net inflows. IBIT maintains its dominant market position with an impressive $40.88 billion in total net inflows since inception and $55.85 billion in total net assets. The VanEck Bitcoin ETF (HODL) also managed to attract a smaller inflow of $4.71 million.

However, Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) experienced the opposite, with $12.47 million in outflows. This reduces its total net inflows since launch to $12.33 billion and its total assets to $19.68 billion.

The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF also saw $16.58 million leave, and the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) faced even larger outflows of $60.08 million. GBTC’s total cumulative net outflows now stand at $22.11 billion, bringing its total assets down to $18.84 billion.

According to a report released by CoinShares on Monday, these ongoing outflows mark the second week in a row of investors pulling funds out, following an impressive 18-week run of inflows that totaled $29 billion.

Ethereum ETFs resilient to market downturn

In contrast to Bitcoin ETFs, Ethereum-based funds have shown more resilience, narrowly averting a second week of net outflows. While they did see $8.92 million withdrawn on February 21st, earlier inflows in the week meant they still managed to post a small net gain of $1.61 million overall for the period.

The Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW) stood out as the only Ethereum fund experiencing notable activity, reporting $8.92 million in outflows after a period of relatively flat trading for over a week.

Despite these recent outflows, ETHW still boasts cumulative net inflows of $338.63 million, with total net assets amounting to $270.53 million. Currently, it ranks fourth among Ethereum ETFs for total net inflows and fifth in terms of total assets.

Source: cryptopolitan.com