Bitwise Asset Management Has Officially Registered “Bitwise NEAR ETF” in Delaware

Bitwise Asset Management has officially registered “Bitwise NEAR ETF” in Delaware. The filing, recorded under file 10174379, is structured as a Delaware statutory trust.

Asset manager Bitwise has now registered “Bitwise NEAR ETF” in Delaware, according to a filing on Monday.

The filing, no. 10174379, is structured as a Delaware statutory trust.

This development suggests that Bitwise might be planning to launch the first U.S. exchange-traded fund linked to NEAR Protocol’s native cryptocurrency.

“This filing is a prerequisite for Bitwise to be able to apply for a U.S. ETF,” said Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise.

The formation of the Bitwise NEAR ETF trust does not yet qualify as a formal application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to Horsley, the firm must first register the trust in the state where the ETF will be listed.

The formation of the NEAR ETF follows a pattern seen in Bitwise’s earlier ETF initiatives.

Earlier this year, Bitwise began the process of registering trusts for other altcoins, including Dogecoin (DOGE), Aptos (APT), and XRP. These filings, typically submitted to the state of Delaware, are often used by asset managers as a first step before applying to the SEC.

Although the SEC has not yet received a formal application for the NEAR ETF, similar filings by Bitwise for other cryptocurrencies later progressed into full ETF proposals.

The Bitwise Dogecoin ETF and Bitwise XRP ETF have already entered formal stages with the SEC. Bitwise is also awaiting regulatory decisions on several pending applications, including its Solana (SOL), DOGE, and XRP ETFs.

The SEC is currently reviewing some cryptocurrency-based ETFs submitted by different firms. Among the delayed applications are Canary Capital’s HBAR ETF and Grayscale’s effort to convert its Polkadot Trust into a formal ETF. The agency has postponed decisions on these until June 10 and June 11, respectively.

The blockchain platform, NEAR Protocol, is designed to support scalable decentralized applications using a sharding mechanism. The platform went live in late 2020 and uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus system to improve transaction efficiency.

After a turbulent period in 2022 due to the broader crypto market downturn, NEAR Protocol’s native token, NEAR, experienced a recovery in 2023. As of April 24, NEAR is trading at $2.54.

Moreover, Bitwise’s strategic focus on creating investment vehicles around emerging Layer-1 blockchain tokens reflects a broader market trend.

With growing demand from institutions and retail investors for crypto-tracking ETFs, firms are focused on providing diversified exposure across various digital assets. The potential NEAR ETF fits into this expanding portfolio.