Nasdaq Proposes a Rule Change to List the VanEck Avalanche ETF

Highlights:

• Nasdaq has presented a rule change proposal to list and trade VanEck’s Avalanche ETF with the US SEC.
• The ETF will trade under Nasdaq Rule 5711, which oversees the exchange’s Commodity-Based Trust Shares.
• According to the filing, the fund is neither an investment company nor a commodity pool.

American stock exchange Nasdaq applied for a rule change with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list the VanEck Avalanche (AVAX) spot ETF. The 19b-4 filing comes a few weeks after VanEck registered a statutory trust for an Avalanche (AVAX) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Delaware on March 10.

VanEck filed a new S-1 registration with the SEC on March 15. In the filing, the asset manager noted that the ETF will allow investors to gain exposure to AVAX without directly owning the token. Like most ETFs, AVAX ETF aims to reduce the risks of holding the token on exchanges.

🎯NEW: Nasdaq files to list VanEck Avalanche $AVAX ETF pic.twitter.com/cER9YXO3Tr

— CryptosRus (@cryptosrus_yt) April 10, 2025

Avalanche ETF Structure

According to the 19b-4 application, Nasdaq plans to list and trade VanEck’s Avalanche ETFs shares under Nasdaq Rule 5711, which oversees Commodity-Based Trust Shares on the exchange. The exchange’s senior management approved the rule change proposal. The Board of Directors authorized the senior management to approve the proposal.

VanEck Digital Assets, LLC will serve as the Trust sponsor, while its trustee will be the Delaware Trust Company. The filing added that a third party named “AVAX Custodian” will hold all of the Trust’s Avalanche tokens. Nasdaq will register the shares with the SEC via the Trust registration statement.

Per the registration statement, the fund is neither an investment company nor a commodity pool for purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). In addition, the Trust sponsor will not be subject to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) regulations.

Nasdaq has submitted a rule change application to the U.S. SEC to list the VanEck Avalanche (AVAX) spot ETF. The filing comes about a month after VanEck initially proposed the ETF. According to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, the market widely expects both AVAX and DOGE spot…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 10, 2025

Nasdaq’s Trust Main Objectives

Nasdaq described the VanEck Trust as a passive investment vehicle. It added that the Trust will not pursue any investment strategy beyond tracking AVAX’s price. The registration statement noted that the Trust’s main objective includes reflecting AVAX’s price performance, excluding the Trust’s operational expenses.

To achieve the above goals, the Trust will value its shares daily based on the reported MarketVector Avalanche Benchmark Rate (Index). The index tracks AVAX prices from the top five trading platforms. These crypto exchanges are selected based on the CCData report, which ranks trading platforms for their quality and reliability.

AVAX Records Slight Increment

At the time of writing, AVAX is 1.7% up in the past 24 hours, trading at approximately $18.52. Within the same timeframe, AVAX fluctuated between $17.67 and $18.61. On CoinGecko, Avalanche ranks as the 15th most valuable cryptocurrency, with a market of approximately $7.7 billion. Despite the slight upswing, AVAX’s 24-hour trading volume dropped 47.97% to about $286.72 million.

In other related news, asset managers have shown strong interest in AVAX ETF. On March 28, Crypto2Community reported that Grayscale Investments applied for a spot AVAX ETF with the US SEC. Like VanEck’s filing, the ETF will allow investors to gain exposure to AVAX via regulated routes. Meanwhile, VanEck has moved to launch the first-ever BNB ETF in the US.