ETC Group officially announced on Wednesday the launch of a new Ethereum ETP in response to the upcoming Ethereum Merge. Scheduled to occur in mid-September, the Ethereum Merge is a long-awaited consensus upgrade that is set to move the Ethereum blockchain from mining-based PoW to mining-free proof-of-stake (PoS).
ETC Group’s new Ethereum ETP will 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.
According to the announcement, ETHWetc is expected to list on Deutsche Boerse’s electronic trading platform, Xetra, under the ticker symbol ZETW. ETC Group noted that the firm anticipates the listing to occur shortly following the fork event on Sept. 16.
The company stressed that the new ZETW will not replace the original ETC Group Physical Ethereum (ZETH). Current ZETH holders will get the new token (ZETW) automatically as an addition on a 1:1 unit basis on brokerage accounts. ETC Group's representatives reached out to clarify that "ZETH will continue just as before and automatically switch to ETH PoS in line with The Merge."
Bradley Duke, founder and co-CEO of ETC Group, pointed out that benefitting from hard forks to the underlying cryptocurrencies is the original vision and commitment of the firm. “In line with this [...] any holders of our Ethereum-based ETP will receive, at no cost, matching units of the new Ethereum PoW ETP soon after the Ethereum hard fork occurs,” he noted.
The news comes amid the crypto industry actively preparing for the upcoming Ethereum Merge, with various companies seeking new mining options or launching Ethereum staking.
On Wednesday, Swiss-regulated crypto platform SEBA Bank enabled Ether (ETH) staking services for institutional investors. The institutional-grade offering clients to generate rewards based on their Ether holdings on a monthly basis, the bank said in a statement. Canadian crypto miner Hive Blockchain also announced on Tuesday that it has been working to replace the mining of ETH with other mineable coins in the event of Ethereum’s transition to PoS.
