Ether Pledges Near All-Time High as ETF Approval Nears

July 11 (Bloomberg) - According to CoinDesk, the amount of pledged ethereum (ETH) is near an all-time high as the approval of the ethereum ETF (exchange-traded fund) is imminent.CryptoQuant data shows that the total amount of pledged ETH currently stands at 33.3 million, or 27.7% of the total supply.Speculators at Polymarket believe that the ethereum ETF will receive U.S. approval by July 26 with a 90% probability.

While the supply of ETH is increasing, pledging and destruction mechanisms can balance its inflationary nature to some extent. In recent weeks, spot trading of ETH has reached 80-90% of Bitcoin's (BTC) trading volume. In addition, CoinMetrics data shows that about 12% of ETH supply is used for smart contracts or cross-chain bridging, and with the pledged portion, about 40% of ETH is "locked up" and not actively traded.

Several companies, including Invesco and Galaxy, have announced management fees of 0.25% for their proposed spot Ether ETFs, slightly higher than VanEck's 0.20%. However, the SEC still needs to provide feedback on the current filing before trading can begin, and issuers will need to file final amendment forms containing fee information and other required details.