After Trump’s high-profile announcement of the strategic reserve of cryptocurrencies, although the market price performance was disappointing, it did not prevent traditional financial institutions from taking action. After the SEC confirmed that several traditional US giants had applied for ETFs for LTC , DOGE , SOL and XRP in February this year, favorable policies and loosened SEC supervision have led to frequent news of progress in copycat ETFs this week.
The latest altcoins applying for ETFs
The order of document submission for ETF application in the United States is: first the issuer submits S-1/S-3 form, then the exchange submits 19 b-4 form, then enters the public comment period, after which the SEC reviews and gives feedback, and finally approves. The entire process takes about 6-8 months, depending on the progress of the SECs review. The following is a list of altcoins that have recently applied for ETFs and the market data for the past 30 days, sorted by application time.
ADA (Cardano)
On February 25, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confirmed that it had accepted the spot Cardano (ADA) ETF listing application submitted by NYSE Arca on behalf of Grayscale. The application was submitted on February 10 and will be custodian by Coinbase Custody Trust Company, with BNY Mellon responsible for asset services and administration.
On March 2, Trump posted on social media to call for strategic reserves of cryptocurrencies including ADA, and ADA rose by more than 70% that day.
DOT (Polkadot)
On February 25, Nasdaq submitted 19 b-4 application documents for the Grayscale DOT ETF (Grayscale Polkadot Trust).
HBAR (Hedera)
On February 24, Nasdaq submitted a 19 b-4 application for the HBAR ETF of Canadian investment company Canary Capital; on March 4, Nasdaq submitted a 19 b-4 application for the Grayscale Hedera ETF.
Hedera is often seen as a dark horse in the cryptocurrency space. The most anticipated news about Hedera is the possible launch of a spot HBAR ETF, with Valour Funds having submitted an application for a physical collateral product to the Euronext exchange in Europe. Meanwhile, Canary Capital has submitted an application for a US-based spot HBAR ETF, further raising market expectations as investors closely monitor regulatory developments in the post-election environment.
AXL (Axelar)
On March 6, Canary filed the S-1 filing for its AXL ETF.
Additionally, former Coinbase legal chief Brian Brooks has joined the new institutional advisory board for Axelar, a project focused on regulatory alignment and institutional adoption.
BlockBeats previously reported that Canary Capital launched the AXL (Axelar) Trust Fund, Canary AXL Trust, which will include the native token of the Axelar network and is the first investment trust to provide investment in a universal blockchain interoperability protocol.
The trust will provide institutional investors with exposure to blockchain interconnected technologies, connecting the Web3 ecosystem such as XRP Ledger, Hedera, Stellar, TON, Sui, Solana and Bitcoin.
APT (Aptos)
On March 6, Bitwise formally submitted an S-1 application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to register the possible launch of the Aptos ETF, taking the first step towards launching the Aptos ETF in the U.S. market.
Aptos is seeking to launch a U.S.-listed ETF alongside major asset managers, a move that makes it one of the few crypto protocols in the world to have achieved this milestone.
Prior to this, Bitwise had launched the Aptos Staking ETP on the Swiss Stock Exchange in November 2024 to stake Aptos tokens.
How is the Ethereum ETF performing now after its approval?
Ethereum ETF officially landed in the U.S. capital market on July 23 last year, with the price of Ethereum at around $3,200 on that day. Market data shows that the net inflow of Ethereum ETF since its launch about half a year ago is $2.76 billion, which is equivalent to Wall Street buying nearly 1% of the volume of Ethereum, while Ethereum has now fallen to around $2,300.
On the one hand, this is because Grayscale has been continuously selling the Ethereum ETF and has become the largest seller in the market, thus hindering the rise of Ethereum; on the other hand, Ethereum is more seriously affected by the selling of giant whales than Bitcoin, and Ethereum is currently still digesting the potential selling pressure from giant whales.
But the good news is that World Finance Liberty, a Trump-related entity, is continuously increasing its holdings of Ethereum. The net inflow of ETFs and the continuous purchases by Trump-related institutions show the attitude of long-term investors towards Ethereum in a market environment where policies are becoming more and more open.
By analogy, if the above-mentioned altcoin ETF is approved in 2025, although this category of ETF will become a window for the inflow of traditional funds, it does not mean that these tokens will show a trend of sharp increase.
Crypto ETF 2.0 Under Trump
Looking at the history of crypto ETFs, it is not difficult to see that Trumps return to the White House this year is a major boon to the entire market. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas pointed out that before Trump won the election, the approval probability of all assets except Litecoin remained below 5%. It is expected that as the application enters the approval process and the SECs decision deadline approaches, the approval probability of cryptocurrency ETFs will continue to rise.
Related reading: Coinbase 2025 Outlook: More Crypto ETFs Will Appear; Stablecoins Are Still the Killer App
What impact will it have on the crypto market?
Bloomberg analysts expect the SEC to make a decision on the proposed altcoin ETF in October this year. It can be foreseen that if altcoin ETFs are approved one after another, various favorable factors in the future will most likely continue to attract more conservative and institutional investors to participate, thereby changing the investor structure of the market. The crypto market may experience increased liquidity, price increases, and changes in investor structure under this policy environment. Therefore, the passage of more ETF products will also bring more funds to the crypto market, enhance market liquidity, and thus reduce price volatility.
In addition, due to the existence of regulatory arbitrage, the ETF launched by the United States may directly lead to imitation by other countries and regions in the world. This imitation may promote the popularity of cryptocurrencies around the world to varying degrees, especially in regions with looser regulations, where the adoption of cryptocurrencies will usher in more rapid growth. Global policy convergence can not only effectively reduce the compliance costs of cross-border transactions, but also further eliminate investors concerns about legal risks, thereby promoting the participation of more institutions and individuals. This trend may accelerate the transformation of cryptocurrencies from marginal assets to mainstream financial instruments, and promote their rising status in the global economy.
As the Trump administration further supports the crypto industry, U.S. states gradually introduce strategic bitcoin reserve legislation , and Republicans control both the Senate and the House, Congress may have the opportunity to pass cryptocurrency-related bills. Once the legislation is passed, cryptocurrencies may be expected to become a new asset class that is neither a security nor a commodity, which will be of epoch-making significance to the crypto market.
What other altcoins may apply for ETFs?
As the Trump administration continues to relax crypto regulations, there is a possibility that applications for altcoin ETFs will peak in 2025. Some institutions have predicted that the surge in demand for cryptocurrency ETFs will cause their total assets in North America to exceed those of precious metal ETFs, making them the third largest asset class after stocks and bonds in the rapidly growing $15 trillion ETF industry.
Especially for altcoins that are highly relevant to the United States, they are more likely to be favored. For example, ONDO (Ondo Finance), as a representative of the RWA track anchored to real assets such as US bonds, may be the first to obtain ETF approval qualifications linked to tokenized treasury bonds, and even become the core target of traditional institutions to allocate crypto assets. If the FIT21 bill is passed within the year and the principle of decentralized protocols exempt from securities laws is established, mainstream US DeFi tokens such as UNI (Uniswap), MKR (MakerDAO), and AAVE (Aave) may be integrated into the traditional financial system at an accelerated pace.
