VanEck Onchain Economy ETF Receives SEC Nod, Eyes May 14 Debut

Asset manager VanEck has received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list an exchange-traded fund tracking blockchain infrastructure builders and related assets.  

The fund, called the Onchain Economy ETF, has a tentative debut of May 14, VanEck Head of Digital Assets Research Matthew Sigel said Thursday in a social media post. Boasting the ticker $NODE, the investment vehicle will aim to hold between 30 and 60 assets linked to the blockchain economy. 

“The global economy is shifting to a digital foundation,” Sigel said in the post. “NODE offers active equity exposure to the real businesses building that future.”

The Onchain Economy ETF will be composed of exchanges, miners and data centers; consumer-oriented companies and asset managers; and firms that hold cryptocurrencies in their treasury reserves, according to Sigel. In addition, digital asset exchange-traded products could represent up to 25% of the fund’s holdings. 

A proposal for the ETF filed on Jan. 15 with U.S. federal regulators also shows that “Digital Transformation Companies” and digital asset instruments could account for at least 80% of the investment vehicle’s holdings. 

VanEck’s upcoming launch of its blockchain-focused ETF comes as an increasing number of investment firms seek approval from federal regulators to offer digital asset-based funds to U.S. investors. 

Those requests increased in the lead-up to the re-election of pro-crypto U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, who has since ordered a sweeping overhaul of the SEC, which is largely responsible for regulating the cryptocurrency industry stateside. 

Amid that overhaul, issuers have filed more than a dozen applications for ETFs, which largely seek to track the prices of various blue-chip tokens and altcoins, including Solana, XRP, Litecoin, Official Trump, and BONK. Meanwhile, at least one issuer has signaled its aspirations to launch a fund tracking the prices of the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection. 

Edited by James Rubin