ETC Group to Launch New ETP Based on Upcoming Ethereum Hard Fork

ETC Group announced on Wednesday that it will launch a new exchange-traded product (ETP) in response to the upcoming Ethereum Merge.

The investment firm said it will list a new Ethereum ETP on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Xetra, based on the imminent hard fork of Ethereum.

ETC Group is Europe’s major provider of institutional-grade digital asset-backed securities headquartered in London.

The Ethereum Merge is a long-awaited consensus upgrade scheduled to move the Ethereum blockchain from mining-based Proof-of-Work (PoW) to mining-free proof-of-stake (PoS).

The hard fork of Ethereum, the world's largest smart-contract blockchain, is planned for mid-September and will see a splitting into a proof-of-stake (PoS) chain and a proof-of-work (PoW) chain. The Ethereum chain with the PoS consensus mechanism will retain the seven-year-old Ether (ETH) cryptocurrency, which is currently trading at $1,585, as its native token. The PoW chain, representing a group of miners opposing the switch to PoS, will have a new token called ETHW.

ETC Group’s new Ethereum ETP is preparing to rely on a forked PoW Ethereum chain, representing a group of miners opposing Ethereum’s switch to PoS.

The PoW chain will have a new token called ETHW, which will provide a basis for ETC Group’s new physically-backed ETP called ETC Group Physical EthereumPoW, or ETHWetc.

ETC Group said it expects to list ETHWetc on Xetra stock exchange, under the ticker symbol ZETW, on 16th September, following the fork event scheduled to occur on September 15.

The company also said ZETW will be adopted in addition to the original ETC Group Physical Ethereum (ZETH) on a 1:1 unit basis on brokerage accounts.

Once the listing goes live, ETC Group said the holders of its current Ethereum ETP – ETC Group Physical Ethereum (ticker ZETH) – will automatically receive securities of the new security, ZETW, on a 1:1 unit basis into their brokerage accounts.

Bradley Duke, founder and co-CEO of ETC Group talked about the development: “When we launched ETC Group, we committed to holders of our digital asset-backed securities that they would benefit from hard forks to the underlying digital assets and cryptocurrencies. In line with this, any holders of our Ethereum-based ETP (ZETH) will receive, at no cost, matching units of the new Ethereum PoW ETP soon after the Ethereum Hard Fork occurs, which we’re expecting around September 15. We believe that it is only right that investors in our products should receive the proceeds of this fork.”

Readying for Ethereum Merge

ETC Group has become the latest firm seeking to launch new products in line with the forked version of Ethereum. Several other crypto-related firms have recently hinted at plans to prepare for the upcoming Ethereum Merge.

Last month, Coinbase announced plans to list any forked Ethereum tokens that might come after the merge.

Last month, Binance also announced plans to credit users’ accounts with tokens from any forked versions of Ethereum created during the network’s merge event scheduled for September 15.

OKX also hinted that the exchange could list the newly forked coins if there is adequate demand.

Others, such as Gate.io, MEXC, Huobi, BitMEX, also confirmed that they would support Ethereum forked assets on their platform so long as they meet the exchange security requirements.