World first Ethereum ETF launches in Canada. The world’s first Ethereum-based fund to be listed on a major stock exchange opened for trading on Thursday. Listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, The Ether Fund (TSX:QETH.U) opened at $10.80 per share after completion of a successful l IPO in which $76.5 million was raised.
To the concern of interested traders, the fund was unavailable for trading upon the opening bell, officially halted because of a delay in closing the fund’s IPO prospectus. Trading actually commenced two hours late, with 345,331 shares being traded across the rest of the day. The fund reached an intra-day high of $11.48 before closing at $11.02. This represents a gain of 2.5% on a trading day in which the price of ETH was down by around 0.5%, creating a premium on the price of QETH.U shares.
The Fund was introduced by Canada’s largest digital asset investment manager 3iQ as a means for traders and investors to gain exposure to the Ethereum market without having to buy, store or sell ETH themselves. At an average price of $565 per ETH, each QETH.U share at the beginning of the trading day amounted to approximately 0.0187 ETH. The coins supporting the shares of the Fund are owned by Gemini Custody, the custodial arm of the crypto-exchange giant Gemini.
The Ether Fund joins 3iQ’s other crypto-backed security, The Bitcoin Fund (TSX:QBTC), which was added to the exchange in late October. 3iQ was ranked the third biggest public digital asset fund in the world in a research report released earlier this month.
The company stressed the importance of offering crypto-backed securities on a major stock exchange in a press release accompanying the opening of QETH.U trading “Gaining access to digital assets […] can be daunting, costly, and inconvenient. 3iQ offers investors convenient and familiar investment products to gain exposure to digital assets.”
[image: Eugene Aikimov]
