U.S. regulators have been approached by asset manager VanEck for approval to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) featuring BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain, as revealed in regulatory filings.
The listing of an ETF containing the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain has been attempted for the first time by the asset manager.
The accumulation of spot BNB tokens has been planned for the ETF, which “may occasionally have a portion of its assets staked through one or more reliable staking providers,” as outlined in the S-1 prospectus. This filing represents the first instance of a BNB ETF being proposed by an asset manager in the United States.
A market capitalization of around $84 billion has been attributed to the BNB token, based on data provided by CoinMarketCap. As of May 5, a yield of nearly 2.5% has been earned by BNB stakers, according to figures from Stakingrewards.com.
Binance’s BNB Chain has been recognized as one of the leading smart contract networks, with a total value locked (TVL) estimated at nearly $6 billion, as reported by DefiLlama.
Is Bitcoin’s ‘Spillover’ Effect Taking Hold?
The filing was submitted just days after it was reportedly stated by Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao that the rising interest in Bitcoin ETFs is expected to eventually extend to altcoins as well.
During the Token2049 conference in Dubai, it was reportedly mentioned by CZ that “This cycle has so far been dominated by ETFs, primarily focused on Bitcoin. While Ether has not achieved the same level of success, the momentum from Bitcoin is expected to eventually benefit other assets as well.”
According to data provided by Farside Investors, net inflows exceeding $40 billion have been drawn by spot Bitcoin ETFs since their launch in January 2024.
The latest addition to a wave of applications aiming to list ETFs backed by altcoins has been made through VanEck’s recent filing.
Dozens of cryptocurrency ETF proposals have been acknowledged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office on January 20.
Included among them are proposals for ETFs backed by native layer-1 tokens like Solana (SOL), along with memecoins such as Dogecoin.
Over the past few months, filings have been submitted by VanEck to list additional cryptocurrency ETFs, including those containing Solana and Avalanche.