VanEck’s AVAX ETF: Avalanche or Avalanche of Paperwork?

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Attention, crypto enthusiasts and bored SEC employees! VanEck, the asset management firm that’s been shaking things up in the world of digital assets, has just submitted an S-1 filing for the first-ever Avalanche exchange-traded fund (AVAX ETF).

Will VanEck Stake Their Reputation on AVAX?

On Friday the 13th (spooky!), VanEck officially registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an Avalanche exchange-traded fund. Prior to filing the S-1 application, the asset manager had registered the first AVAX ETF in Delaware earlier this week.

Bloomberg ETF expert James Seyffart, in his announcement post on X, clarified the earlier report about the Delaware registration. Seyffart noted that while the Trust registration made the rounds earlier in the week, the latest S-1 application is the first actual filing with the US SEC.

The registration statement read:

The VanEck Avalanche ETF (the “Trust”) is an exchange-traded fund that issues common shares of beneficial interest (the “Shares”) that are expected to be approved for listing, subject to notice of issuance, on [ ] (the “Exchange”) under the ticker symbol [  ]. The Trust’s investment objective is to reflect the performance of the price of “AVAX,” the native token of the Avalanche network, less the expenses of the Trust’s operations.

In the S-1 filing, VanEck disclosed that it may occasionally stake a portion of the ETF’s assets through “one or more trusted staking providers.” According to the asset manager, the “Trust” would receive AVAX tokens as rewards (which would also be treated as “income to the Trust”) for any staking activity.

This would hardly be the first time such language would be used in the registration statement for these crypto-based financial products in recent weeks. Recently, Franklin Templeton disclosed intentions to stake Solana tokens with “one or more trusted staking providers” for income in its Solana exchange-traded fund filing.

The AVAX ETF filing added:

VanEck Digital Assets, LLC is the sponsor of the Trust, Delaware Trust Company is the trustee of the Trust, and [  ], (the “Avalanche Custodian” or “[  ]”), or any successor custodian, is the custodian of the Trust, who will hold all of the Trust’s AVAX on the Trust’s behalf.

If approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the AVAX ETF will join VanEck’s growing catalog of crypto-based exchange-traded products. The asset management firm is amongst the issuers whose Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs received approval in 2024.

Avalanche Price: Up, Up, and Away?

The price of AVAX has returned to around $18.5 after briefly crossing the $19 mark on Friday. According to CoinGecko data, the altcoin is down over 7% on the weekly timeframe.

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2025-03-15 09:28