Grayscale officially abandons post-Merge PoW Ethereum tokens

Major cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale has finally mad the decision to abandon all the rights to the post-Merge proof-of-work (PoW) Ethereum tokens (ETHPoW).

Announcing the news on Sept. 18, Grayscale said that the firm has “irrevocably abandoned” all the rights to ETHPoW tokens on behalf of the record date shareholders of each product.

After a thorough review, Grayscale determined that the ETHPoW tokens have not developed meaningful liquidity, while the products’ custodian doesn’t support such tokens. The firm wrote:

“As such, it is not possible to exercise the rights to acquire and sell the ETHPoW tokens, and on behalf of the record date shareholders, Grayscale is abandoning the rights to these assets.”

Grayscale’s decision to drop the rights for ETHPoW tokens comes more than a year after the Ethereum Merge, an event that marked Ethereum’s full transition from PoW to proof-of-stake (PoS). The Merge occurred on Sept. 15, 2022, forking the Ethereum blockchain into main PoS-based Ethereum and minor PoW-based Ethereum.

In the aftermath of the Merge, Grayscale was considering whether the company should acquire EthereumPoW and sell ETHW on behalf of the record date shareholders. 180 days after the Merge, the company took another six months to make a decision on whether to acquire those PoW tokens, citing uncertainty regarding the support of ETHW tokens by digital asset custodians and trading venues.

Related: Ethereum Merge anniversary — 99% energy drop but centralization fears linger

Unlike Grayscale, some cryptocurrency investment firms like ETC Group have attempted to launch dedicated EthereumPoW exchange-traded products (ETPs). ETC Group eventually terminated its PoW-based ZETW ETP just six weeks after the launch, citing the absence of eligible custody providers.

The news on Grayscale’s ETHW decision came one day before Grayscale proposed to launch a new Ether (ETH) futures exchange-traded fund. The firm filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to list and trade shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Futures Trust (ETH) ETF under the New York Stock Exchange Arca Rule 8.200-E on Sept. 19.