Trump Media seeks SEC approval for bitcoin and ethereum ETF

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., July 27, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm/File Photo
(Reuters) -Trump Media & Technology Group is seeking to launch an exchange-traded fund that will invest in both bitcoin and ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
This marks the second cryptocurrency ETF filing from the social media company associated with President Donald Trump in less than two weeks. If approved, the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF and the Truth Social Bitcoin & Ethereum ETF would join a crowded and competitive market already dominated by a handful of established asset managers such as BlackRock, whose iShares Bitcoin ETF has $72.5 billion in assets.
"It will be a challenge for any new entrant in this market," said Bryan Armour, ETF analyst at Morningstar. "The only way to stand out will be through fees or brand."
The filing for the new bitcoin and ethereum ETF does not disclose proposed fees, and Trump Media has yet to reveal fees for the bitcoin ETF. Similar products have fees of 0.12%.
Trump Media representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Armour noted that the latest filing spells out a specific allocation ratio between bitcoin and ethereum. The issuer, Yorkville America Digital, said it initially anticipates holding three bitcoins for every ethereum token in the ETF.
"There is little that is different about this new venture other than the way it could be marketed," said Sui Chung, CEO and chairman of CF Benchmarks. "Given Truth Social's involvement, it may very well be that (these) are marketed directly to individual investors and that this ends up getting attention from those investors in the same way that people who love their iPhones buy Apple stock."
(Reporting by Suzanne McGee in New York and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Rod Nickel)

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