Nasdaq Submits Application for Grayscale Hedera ETF

Grayscale Investments, a leading crypto asset manager, has taken steps to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for HBAR, the native token of the Hedera network, according to a new application. The Nasdaq Stock Market has filed a 19b-4 application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list and trade the Grayscale Hedera Trust.

ETFs offer traders the opportunity to gain exposure to assets such as precious metals and crypto, without having to buy them directly. The SEC approved Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) ETFs in 2024.

Hedera Hashgraph is a competitor of Ethereum and is one of several altcoin-based ETFs that Grayscale is currently pursuing. At the moment, HBAR is trading at $0.2511, an increase of 7.8% in the last 24 hours.

Grayscale expands ETF offering

In addition to HBAR, Grayscale has also filed an application this year for the Grayscale Cardano Trust. If approved, it would be the first ETF for ADA. The company is also working on a Solana (SOL) ETF and a conversion of the existing Grayscale XRP Trust to a spot ETF. Grayscale has also recently announced a new trust that gives investors access to Dogecoin (DOGE), the largest memecoin at the moment.

1. The series of ETF applications come at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to create a friendlier regulatory climate for digital assets. He has nominated Paul Atkins as the new chairman of the SEC. This represents a possible policy shift from the previous SEC leadership under Gary Gensler, who was considered anti-crypto.