Grayscale Investments has withdrawn registration statements for 3 proposed spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to Cardano’s ADA, Hedera’s HBAR and Polkadot’s DOT, in accordance with filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) on Aug. 7.
The withdrawals cowl the proposed Grayscale Cardano Belief ETF, Grayscale Hedera Belief ETF and Grayscale Polkadot Belief ETF. Grayscale submitted separate Kind RW requests asking the SEC to withdraw the respective Kind S-1 registration statements.
The filings don’t symbolize SEC rejections. As an alternative, Grayscale voluntarily requested that the registrations be withdrawn, stating in every submitting that the sponsor “doesn’t intend to proceed with the deliberate distribution” of the belief’s shares.
The three filings had been submitted inside minutes of each other, with the Cardano registration withdrawn first, adopted by Hedera and Polkadot. The paperwork additionally clarify that not one of the registration statements had grow to be efficient. No securities had been issued or bought below the registrations, and no preliminary prospectuses had been distributed.
Grayscale Withdraws Cardano, Hedera and Polkadot ETF Filings From SEC
Grayscale Ends Three Altcoin ETF Plans
The withdrawals shut a chapter that started throughout the wave of institutional curiosity in single-asset crypto ETFs that adopted the approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum merchandise in america.
Grayscale initially proposed a Cardano ETF in February 2025, adopted by its Polkadot ETF later that month. The asset supervisor filed the corresponding S-1 registration statements for the ADA and DOT merchandise in August 2025, whereas the Hedera registration adopted in September.
The proposed funds had been designed as passive funding automobiles supposed to offer traders with publicity to the value of their respective cryptocurrencies, much less charges and bills.
The related exchange-listing proposals had already been withdrawn. SEC information present that NYSE Arca withdrew the Cardano proposal in September 2025, whereas Nasdaq withdrew the Polkadot and Hedera proposals in November. The most recent Kind RW submissions subsequently take away the separate Securities Act registration statements related to the proposed trusts.
The excellence is essential: withdrawing an S-1 doesn’t imply the SEC rejected the merchandise. It merely means Grayscale has determined to not proceed with these specific registrations.
No Motive Given for the Withdrawals
Grayscale didn’t present a selected rationalization for the choice within the filings.
That leaves a number of doable interpretations, together with altering market situations, product demand, regulatory technique or a call to restructure its ETF pipeline. Nonetheless, the filings themselves don’t set up that anybody of those elements brought on the withdrawals.
The transfer comes because the U.S. crypto ETF market has grow to be more and more aggressive. Asset managers at the moment are pursuing a broader vary of merchandise, whereas regulators have additionally launched generic itemizing requirements for sure commodity-based belief shares, probably altering how future crypto ETFs may be dropped at market.
Consequently, withdrawing an older registration doesn’t essentially imply Grayscale has completely deserted publicity to ADA, HBAR or DOT. The corporate might theoretically pursue a brand new construction or registration sooner or later.
Altcoin Weak point Provides Strain
The withdrawals additionally arrive after a troublesome interval for the three underlying tokens.
In response to the information supplied within the filings-related experiences, ADA is down greater than 41% 12 months to this point, whereas DOT has fallen roughly 54% and HBAR about 35%. From the interval when Grayscale initially introduced its ETF plans in early 2025, the declines have been significantly deeper, with ADA experiencing a drawdown of round 70%, DOT roughly 80% and HBAR greater than 70%.
These losses spotlight the problem dealing with asset managers searching for to construct devoted funding merchandise round particular person altcoins. Whereas an ETF could make an asset simpler for conventional traders to entry, demand for the product finally will depend on investor curiosity, liquidity and the perceived long-term potential of the underlying token.
For ADA, HBAR and DOT holders, the withdrawal removes a possible institutional-access catalyst, though it doesn’t instantly change the underlying networks or their fundamentals.
All three tokens have been shedding worth over the previous few month (Supply: DefiLlama)
Grayscale’s ETF Technique Continues
Regardless of the three withdrawals, Grayscale’s broader ETF technique stays energetic.
The corporate continues to supply a variety of crypto funding merchandise, together with funds offering publicity to Bitcoin and Ethereum, in addition to newer merchandise involving staking and different digital property. SEC information additionally present that a number of different proposed Grayscale altcoin merchandise stay at varied levels of the registration course of.
Amongst them are proposed merchandise linked to property together with Bittensor, Aave, BNB, NEAR and Zcash. In the meantime, Grayscale has superior sure staking-focused merchandise, demonstrating that the corporate just isn’t abandoning the broader crypto ETF market.
The most recent withdrawals subsequently seem extra vital as a pruning of Grayscale’s product pipeline than as a retreat from crypto ETFs altogether.
For now, the SEC filings present no indication that Grayscale plans to interchange the three withdrawn registrations. They merely affirm that the asset supervisor has chosen to not proceed with the present ADA, HBAR and DOT choices.
The choice leaves traders watching carefully for whether or not Grayscale finally returns with revised filings — or whether or not the withdrawals mark a extra everlasting shift wherein altcoins the asset supervisor believes can appeal to significant institutional demand.
