Crypto investment firm Canary Capital has applied to launch a spot Hedera exchange-traded fund (ETF). According to an S-1 registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, the financial product will provide exposure to HBAR.
What Is HBAR?
HBAR is the native token of Hedera Network, a public, open-source network that supports the development of decentralized applications (DApps), asset tokenization, and smart contracts. HBAR is used for transaction fees, network security through staking, and as a medium of exchange within the network.
The ETF will allow investors to speculate on the spot price of HBAR without directly holding the digital asset. Canary stated that the fund will hold HBAR and establish its net asset value (NAV) by referencing the price of HBAR in U.S. dollars as calculated by CoinDesk.
Following the application, HBAR saw a notable surge above 30% to exchange hands at $0.07321.
Growing Demand for Crypto Investment Products
The development comes amid a growing demand for crypto investment products. In October, Canary became the first company to file a spot Litecoin ETF application. In the same month, it filed for an ETF tied to the spot price of XRP.
Asset manager 21Shares filed for a spot XRP ETF earlier this month and is also seeking approval for a spot Solana ETF.
However, these ETFs’ approval chances remain slim as the SEC declared that most crypto assets, except Bitcoin and Ether, are securities.
While the odds are low, Trump’s recent victory has raised hope for approving other spot ETFs in addition to Bitcoin and Ether. Trump has pledged to implement several crypto-friendly policies when he returns to the White House. Among his promises is to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler on his first day in office. Under Gensler’s leadership, crypto firms have struggled to operate in the U.S.