VanEck looks to get SEC's greenlight for first AVAX ETF

Fund manager VanEck wants the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's approval to launch an AVAX exchange-traded fund.

VanEck filed for the "VanEck Avalanche ETF", according to a registration statement filed on Friday. 

"The Trust's investment objective is to reflect the performance of the price of 'AVAX,' the native token of the Avalanche network, less the expenses of the Trust's operations," according to that filing.

VanEck registered for the ETF in Delaware this past week for what's believed to be the first AVAX  ETF.

"Notably — the trust registration was shared widely on this earlier this week," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart on Friday in a post on X. "But this is the first actual filing with the SEC."

Firms are looking to get the SEC's sign-off for several different types of crypto ETFs, including ones tracking SOL, XRP, DOGE and LTC. Under the previous administration, the SEC approved the listing of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 and spot Ethereum ETFs in July. 

However, the agency has signaled a more friendly approach to the industry. In a matter of just a few weeks, the agency has rescinded controversial crypto accounting guidance, dropped enforcement actions against major crypto industry players, created a crypto task force and issued a memecoin statement.