Fidelity reportedly amends Ether ETF S-1 filing, removes ETH staking

Fidelity has filed an amended S-1 application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The asset management giant has reportedly filed an updated S-1 application, stating that the ETF’s underlying Ether (ETH) tokens will not be staked. S-1 filings are the SEC’s required registration form for launching publicly traded securities products in the U.S.

The amended filing follows reports that the United States SEC has U-turned on spot Ether ETFs — possibly due to political pressure — with reports stating it has asked ETF issuers to update their 19b-4 filings.

The next deadline for the SEC is for VanEck’s Ether ETF proposal on May 23. While senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has increased the odds of approval to 75% from just 25%, this only applies to the 19b-4 form.

However, Ether ETF issuers will also need to get their S-1 filings approved, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, who wrote in a May 20 X post:

“We also need S-1 approvals. It could be weeks to months before we see S-1 approvals and thus a live EtH ETF… That said, if we’re correct and we see these theoretical approvals later this week. It *should* mean that S-1 approvals are a matter of ‘When’ not ‘If’…”

Related: Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein steps down

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.