After weeks of speculation, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has officially filed for a staked Ethereum (ETH) Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Amid the bullish news, the King of Altcoins’ price is attempting to break out of a two-month resistance, which could set the stage for a retest of higher levels.
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BlackRock Files For Staked Ethereum ETF
BlackRock has submitted an S-1 form with the US SEC to get approval for its iShares Ethereum Staking Trust (ETHB), which “seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of ether and rewards from staking a portion of the Trust’s ether, to the extent the Sponsor in its sole discretion determines that the Trust may do so without incurring undue legal or regulatory risk.”
Filed on December 5, BlackRock’s registration statement explains that, if approved, the proposed fund aims to stake 70% to 90% of its Ethereum holdings, distributing staking rewards to stakeholders at least quarterly.
Coinbase Custody Trust will serve as the custodian for the Trust’s ETH holdings, the filing noted, while Anchorage Digital Bank will be an available alternative custodian for the Trust’s ether holdings. Meanwhile, the Bank of New York Mellon will serve as the custodian for the Trust’s cash holdings and the administrator of the Trust.
Notably, BlackRock’s ETHB will operate separately from its spot ETH fund, the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), which is the largest in its category with $11 billion in assets under management (AUM).
It’s worth noting that the crypto community began speculating about BlackRock’s upcoming staked ETH fund after the leading asset manager registered the name in Delaware last month.
In a November report, 10x Research argued that the potential introduction of a staked Ethereum ETF by BlackRock would bring “increased scrutiny” to “the economics of DATs” as retail investors would reallocate to a low-cost source of yield.
The report added that many investors are unaware that Digital Asset Treasury (DATs)’s embedded costs “far exceed” the management fee charged by asset managers like BlackRock on its Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH ETFs.
ETH Nears Key Downtrend Line
Ethereum’s price started the week attempting to reclaim a crucial area after managing to hold the $3,000 level as support despite the volatility during the weekend. The cryptocurrency surged nearly 3% in the daily timeframe, hitting $3,180 before retracing on Monday.
Amid this performance, analyst Ali Martinez suggested that “it’s time to pay attention to ETH,” noting that it nears a key level that could push the price to higher zones. Per the chart, Ethereum briefly broke out of its two-month downtrend line, which has served as resistance since early October.
Over this period, the King of Altcoins has attempted to break out of this level twice, but has ultimately been rejected during each attempt. On Monday morning, ETH briefly broke above the trendline before being rejected a third time.
However, if Ethereum reclaims the $3,120-$3,130 levels and turns the downtrend into support, it could build the base for a retest of the $3,200-$3,300 horizontal levels, which marks the lower boundary of its Q3 and early Q4 price range.
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Meanwhile, Rekt Capital asserted that Ethereum Dominance (ETHDOM) continues to move within its macro consolidation range, holding support at the 11.67% level. He previously affirmed that if “ETHDOM can maintain itself above 10.05% then it should be positioned for higher market dominance levels over time.”
The analyst added that although history suggests a potential 2.5% drop to the consolidation range lows, this dip would occur “in the context of a macro move to 18%-20%” in the future.
As of this writing, Ethereum is trading at $3,114, a 13.7% increase on the weekly timeframe.
Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
