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Grayscale withdraws Cardano spot ETF filing, leaving ADA with no US bid
Grayscale said it does not intend to proceed with the Cardano Trust ETF distribution after ADA’s futures track hit the SEC’s generic eligibility path.
Grayscale withdrew its registration for a proposed Cardano Trust spot ETF on Aug. 7, telling the SEC it did not intend to proceed with the planned distribution, a move the firm characterized as voluntary. The same afternoon, Grayscale filed parallel registrations for Hedera and Polkadot, according to CryptoSlate.
The pullback came just before a regulatory threshold that could have made a spot-ETF case easier for ADA. CryptoSlate reports that CME’s regulated ADA futures had traded for six months as of Aug. 9, matching one route under the SEC’s generic listing framework for spot-commodity style ETP eligibility, and that the only dedicated US spot applicant built around ADA was no longer in place right before the change took effect.
With Grayscale’s Cardano registration never becoming effective, the filing states that no securities were issued or sold. CryptoSlate adds that there was no operating fund holding ADA to unwind, and that the absence of a dedicated single-asset spot ETF means ADA is missing a specific channel through which brokerage and institutional demand could convert directly into ADA purchases when shares are created.
Other ADA exposures remain limited in US crypto products, CryptoSlate reports. Volatility Shares runs a Cardano ETF built primarily on CME ADA futures and does not invest directly in ADA, with combined net assets around $1.26 million as of July, while Franklin Templeton’s Crypto Index ETF holds ADA at 0.69% of net assets, about $70,709 as of the end of last year. Meanwhile, CryptoSlate notes ADA has fallen more than 41% year-to-date and roughly 70% since Grayscale’s original ETF filing.