Litecoin (LTC) Will Probably Be the First Cryptocurrency to Get Its Own ETF, Analysts Predict

Two ETF analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence have named litecoin (LTC) as a potential candidate for the next spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the U.S.

The ETF analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence named litecoin (LTC) as a potential candidate for the next spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the U.S., following the recent bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) launches.

According to ETF analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence, Canary Funds recently filed an amended S-1 for their litecoin ETF filing, which could indicate SEC engagement on the filing.

Nasdaq filed a 19b-4 form for Canary Funds' litecoin ETF on Thursday, which will require the SEC to approve or reject the ETF in the coming year.

With a market capitalization of $8.8 billion, litecoin ranks 11th among the CoinDesk 20 (an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies excluding stablecoins, memecoins and exchange coins) and 24th overall.

However, being a bitcoin fork, litecoin's protocol is similar to Bitcoin's, employing a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism and has not been labeled a security by the SEC, unlike larger cryptocurrencies such as solana (SOL) and ripple (XRP).

“We expect a wave of cryptocurrency ETFs next year, albeit not all at once,” Balchunas wrote in December. “First out is likely the bitcoin and ether combo ETFs, then probably litecoin (because it’s a fork of bitcoin = commodity), then HBAR (because not labeled security) and then XRP/Solana (which have been labeled securities in pending lawsuits).”

The SEC under Paul Atkins is expected to approach the crypto industry differently than under Gary Gensler, which Balchunas noted was a “huge variable.”