Australia to Launch Its First Spot Ether ETF
2024-10-15


On October 14 Australia will introduce its first spot ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) through Monochrome, a crypto investment firm. This launch follows Monochrome’s spot Bitcoin ETF, which debuted in August.
The Monochrome Ethereum ETF (IETH) will go live at 23:00 UTC, enabling cash and in-kind redemptions. Investors will have the flexibility to buy and redeem shares using ether, mirroring the structure of similar crypto ETFs in Hong Kong.
Monochrome’s August bitcoin ETF holds 165 BTC worth over $10 million as of October 10. Globally, the market for crypto ETFs has expanded, though the scale remains smaller outside the U.S. In comparison, U.S. crypto ETFs manage $58.66 billion in bitcoin and $6.74 billion in ether assets. The recent interest in ETFs is further reflected in South Korea’s Financial Services Commission’s consideration of crypto ETF approvals.
ETH Info
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that was proposed in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin and launched in 2015. It serves as a foundation for building and running smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps). While Bitcoin focuses primarily on peer-to-peer electronic cash transactions, Ethereum expands the functionality of blockchain technology by enabling the execution of complex programmable contracts.
At the core of Ethereum is its native cryptocurrency called Ether ETHUSD, which is used to facilitate transactions and incentivize participants in the network. However, Ethereum's main innovation lies in its ability to support the creation of smart contracts. Smart contracts are self-executing agreements with predefined rules and conditions written in code. They automatically execute transactions or perform actions once the conditions outlined in the contract are met.
Developers can build decentralized applications on top of Ethereum using its Solidity programming language. These applications can cover a wide range of use cases, including financial services, decentralized exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and more.
Ethereum introduced the concept of ERC-20 tokens, which are fungible tokens that can be created on the Ethereum platform and used for various purposes, including fundraising through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and tokenizing assets.
Ethereum has a thriving ecosystem and community of developers and users, and it has become one of the most popular and widely adopted blockchain platforms. However, it has faced challenges such as scalability and high transaction fees, which the Ethereum community is actively working on through upgrades like Ethereum 2.0 to address these issues and improve the network's performance and scalability.