While many products are already exciting, nothing sells excitement more than a “World’s First” tag. It signals exclusivity and brand newness; customers love it, and vendors know it. Many companies have used this tag for a long time, and  Monochrome seems to be the latest company to use it.

Following the approval of ETFs in the United States, Monochrome, the asset management company, has announced that it will launch Australia’s first spot Ethereum Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) on Cboe Global Markets.

Monochrome launched its own Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) in August 2023, and the company is wasting no time releasing its Ethereum ETF counterpart (IETH). The company announced that the newly launched asset will start trading on Tuesday, October 15. 

Since its release in August last year, Monochrome’s IBTC has garnered $15 million. Of course, this figure is not as impressive as that of U.S.-listed equivalents. However, the company hopes its new approach, as the first to offer in-kind Ethereum subscriptions and redemptions, will make the new launch even more successful. 

Jeff Yew, Monochrome’s CEO, was very optimistic. He explained the benefits IETH brings that could make it a huge market contender. He stated that IETH’s dual-access bare structure is designed to prevent a capital gains tax. It also allows long-term crypto participants to transfer Ethereum into the corresponding Monochrome ETF without changing the legal and beneficial title over the assets. 

In Yew’s words, the bare trust “means that your investment in the ETF may be treated as if you directly own the Ethereum.” So, investors gain absolute entitlement over all the Ethereum allocated to them.

It also means that all actions taken by the trustee over the asset are considered to be the actions of the investor, meaning that no CGT event is triggered after redemption or transfer so far as beneficial ownership is left unchanged. 

Monochrome hopes that these distinct features it offers will give the newly launched IETH an edge over its more established counterparts in the US market. 

The US ETH ETF market is already well established. In May, the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved nine ETH ETFs, and the market has already raised billions of dollars in the months since then.It might take a while before the Australian market begins to record those inflows, but Monochrome is highly optimistic. It hopes to build on investors' increasing interest in ETH ETFs this year. 

The company also mentioned that the new IETH will be available on most Australian brokerage platforms that support transfers from crypto platforms, decentralized, and cold wallets. 

Monochrome is also not the only company involved in the new IETH launch. The crypto financial services company Bitgo and the crypto exchange operator Gemini will join in by providing custody services for IETH. Lastly, State Street Australia will also serve as the fund administrator.

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