Grayscale files for spot Polkadot fund as altcoin ETF race heats up

The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, on behalf of Grayscale, filed a 19b-4 proposal on Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list and trade shares of the Grayscale Polkadot Trust (DOT). The fund's assets consist solely of DOT tokens, the native token of the Polkadot Network. 

The sponsors of the exchange-traded fund are Grayscale Operating and Grayscale Investments Sponsors, which are wholly owned subsidiaries of Digital Currency Group. Grayscale announced in 2021 the establishment of several new crypto trusts, including the Grayscale Polkadot Trust.

A 19b-4 filing is the second part of a two-step process for proposing a crypto ETF to the SEC. Once acknowledged by the SEC, the filing will be published in the Federal Register, thus starting the agency's approval process.

The news comes one day after Canary Capital submitted a 19b-4 filing for a spot HBAR ETF , as the altcoin ETF filings continue to pile in. 21Shares was the first issuer to file for a spot Polkadot ETF on Jan. 31. Tuttle Capital  filed for 10 leveraged crypto ETFs, including one tracking Polkadot.

Under the Trump administration, crypto-friendly policies have fueled a surge in ETF filings beyond bitcoin and ether. Some have warned that an influx of speculative crypto ETFs could damage the industry’s reputation.

The SEC previously acknowledged spot XRP ETF and Litecoin ETF filings in recent weeks. Bloomberg analysts  recently estimated that Litecoin ETFs have the highest chance of approval (90%) among the wave of spot crypto ETFs , followed by Dogecoin (75% chance), Solana (70%) and XRP (65%) products.

"Expecting more SEC acknowledgements on XRP & Litecoin ETFs today too. Altcoin ETFs are coming," Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart wrote Tuesday in a post on X .

Polkadot is a decentralized platform that enables the transfer of various types of data between different blockchains. It seeks to enhance the interoperability and scalability of the blockchain ecosystem. DOT is a top-30 cryptocurrency by market cap ($6.6 billion) and trades at around $4.34 at publication time, according to The Block's DOT price data .