05/06/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/06/2026 11:31
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
This information should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes to financial statements included in Item 1 of Part I of this Form 10-Q. The discussion and analysis that follows may contain statements that relate to future events or future performance. In some cases, such forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions. Actual events or results may differ materially. These statements are based upon certain assumptions and analyses made by the Sponsor on the basis of its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Whether or not actual results and developments will conform to the Sponsor's expectations and predictions, however, is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including the special considerations discussed below, general economic, market and business conditions, changes in laws or regulations, including those concerning taxes, made by governmental authorities or regulatory bodies, and other world economic and political developments. Although the Sponsor does not make forward-looking statements unless it believes it has a reasonable basis for doing so, the Sponsor cannot guarantee their accuracy. Except as required by applicable disclosure laws, neither the Trust nor the Sponsor is under a duty to update any of the forward-looking statements to conform such statements to actual results or to a change in the Sponsor's expectations or predictions.
Overview of the Trust
Fidelity Ethereum Fund (the "Trust") is an exchange-traded product that issues shares of beneficial interest (the "Shares") that trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. (the "Exchange"). The Trust's investment objective is to seek to track the performance of ether, as measured by the performance of the Fidelity Ethereum Reference Rate (the "Index"), adjusted for the Trust's expenses and other liabilities. The Index is constructed using ether price feeds from eligible ether spot markets and a volume-weighted median price ("VWMP") methodology, calculated every 15 seconds based on VWMP spot market data over rolling sixty-minute increments. The Index is designed to reflect the performance of ether in U.S. dollars. In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Trust holds ether and values its Shares daily based on the same methodology used to calculate the Index. The Trust is sponsored by FD Funds Management LLC (the "Sponsor"), a wholly owned subsidiary of FMR LLC.
The Trust is passively managed and does not pursue active management investment strategies. The Sponsor believes that the Shares are designed to provide investors with a cost-effective and convenient way to invest in ether without purchasing, holding and trading ether directly. The Trust sells and redeems Shares only with Authorized Participants in exchange for ether or cash and only in blocks of 25,000 Shares.
The Shareholders of the Trust take no part in the management or control, and have no voice in, the Trust's operations or business. Except in limited circumstances, Shareholders have no voting rights under the Trust Agreement.
Valuation of Ether and Computation of Net Asset Value ("NAV")
For purposes of calculating the Trust's net asset value ("Trust's NAV") per Share, the Trust's holdings of ether are valued using the same methodology as used to calculate the Index.
The Trust's NAV per Share is calculated by:
The Administrator calculates the Trust's NAV once each Exchange trading day. The Trust's NAV for a normal trading day is released after 4:00 p.m. Eastern time ("EST"). Trading during the core trading session on the Exchange typically closes at 4:00 p.m. EST. However, the Trust's NAVs are not officially struck until after 4:00 p.m. EST. The pause after 4:00 p.m. EST provides an opportunity for the Sponsor to algorithmically detect, flag, investigate, and correct unusual pricing should it occur. The Sponsor has established a Valuation and Liquidity Committee to carry out the day-to-day fair valuation responsibilities and has adopted policies and procedures to govern the fair valuation process and the activities of the Valuation and Liquidity Committee. If the Valuation and Liquidity Committee determines in good faith that the Index does not reflect an accurate ether price, then the Valuation and Liquidity Committee instructs the Administrator to employ an alternative method to determine the fair value of the Trust's assets. In determining an alternative fair value method, the Valuation and Liquidity Committee generally considers such criteria as observable market-based inputs, including market quotations and last sale information from third-party pricing services and/or trading platforms on which ether are traded. The Valuation and Liquidity Committee's selection of third-party pricing services used considers the qualifications, experience, and history of the pricing services and whether their valuation methodologies and procedures are reasonably designed to produce prices that reflect fair value under the prevailing market conditions.
In addition, in order to provide updated information relating to the Trust for use by Shareholders and market professionals, a third-party financial data provider will calculate and disseminate throughout the core trading session on each trading day an updated intraday indicative value ("IIV"). The IIV is calculated based on the Trust's ether holdings and any other assets expected to comprise that day's Trust's NAV calculation. The third-party financial data provider will use the Blockstream Crypto Data Feed Streaming Level 1 as the pricing source for the spot ether. The Blockstream Crypto Data Feed Streaming Level 1 calculates an average of current ether price levels of the ether trading platforms that are available on its feed. The Trust will provide an IIV per Share updated every 15 seconds, as calculated by the Exchange or a third-party financial data provider during the Exchange's regular trading hours of 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST ("Regular Trading Hours"). The IIV disseminated during Regular Trading Hours should not be viewed as an actual real-time update of the Trust's NAV, which will be calculated only once at the end of each trading day as described herein.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Principal Market and Fair Value Determination
The Trust's periodic financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification Topic 820, "Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures" ("ASC Topic 820"). ASC Topic 820 requires the fair value measurement of ether to assume that transactions take place in the principal market or, in the absence of a principal market, the most advantageous market, for ether that the Trust has access to. The Trust may buy and sell ether through brokered, dealer, over-the-counter, exchange or other markets. The Sponsor determines in its sole discretion the valuation sources and policies used to prepare the Trust's financial statements in accordance with GAAP. The Trust engaged a third-party pricing service to obtain an exchange-traded price from a principal market for ether, which was determined and designated based on its consideration of several exchange characteristics, including oversight, and the volume and frequency of trades. The exchange-traded price from the principal market on the periodic financial statements is as of 11:59:59 p.m. EST on the Trust's financial statement measurement date.
The Quarter Ended March 31, 2026
The Trust's net assets decreased from approximately $2.2 billion as of December 31, 2025, to $1.2 billion as of March 31, 2026. The change in the Trust's net assets was driven by a decrease in outstanding Shares, which fell from 74,550,000 as of December 31, 2025 to 57,850,000 as of March 31, 2026 as a result of 29,000,000 Shares (1,160 Baskets) being created and 45,700,000 Shares (1,828 Baskets) being redeemed, coupled with a decrease in the price of ether, which fell 29.27% from $2,971.55 as of December 31, 2025 to $2,101.84 as of March 31, 2026.
The NAV per Share decreased 29.31% from $29.64 as of December 31, 2025 to $20.95 as of March 31, 2026. The Trust's NAV per Share decreased 29.26% from $29.56 as of December 31, 2025 to $20.91 as of March 31, 2026.
The Trust's NAV per Share of $33.67 at January 14, 2026, was the highest during the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared with a low of $18.49 at February 23, 2026.
The quantity of ether owned by the Trust and held by the ether custodian decreased from 743,795 as of December 31, 2025, to 576,821 as of March 31, 2026. The decrease in quantity resulted from net redemptions of Shares during the quarter which corresponded to net sales of ether.
The net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the three months ended March 31, 2026, was approximately $0.7 billion, primarily resulting from a net unrealized depreciation on investment in ether of approximately $0.4 billion and a net realized loss of $0.3 billion from the sale of the investment in ether for the redemption of Shares.
The Quarter Ended March 31, 2025
The Trust's net assets decreased from approximately $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2024, to $0.7 billion as of March 31, 2025. The change in the Trust's net assets was driven by a decrease in outstanding Shares, which fell from 47,175,000 as of December 31, 2024 to 40,025,000 as of March 31, 2025 as a result of 19,500,000 Shares (780 Baskets) being redeemed and 12,350,000 Shares (494 Baskets) being created, coupled with a decrease in the price of ether, which fell 44.96% from $3,333.60 as of December 31, 2024 to $1,834.80 as of March 31, 2025.
The NAV per Share decreased 44.99% from $33.34 as of December 31, 2024 to $18.34 as of March 31, 2025. The Trust's NAV per Share decreased 45.16% from $33.44 on December 31, 2024 to $18.34 on March 31, 2025.
The Trust's NAV per Share of $36.93 at January 06, 2025, was the highest during the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared with a low of $18.34 at March 31, 2025.
The quantity of ether owned by the Trust and held by the ether custodian decreased from 471,750 as of December 31, 2024, to 400,086 as of March 31, 2025. The decrease in quantity resulted from net redemptions of Shares during the quarter which corresponded to net sales of ether.
The net decrease in net assets resulting from operations for the three months ended March 31, 2025, was $0.7 billion, primarily resulting from a net unrealized depreciation on investment in ether of $0.5 billion and a net realized loss of $0.2 billion from the sale of the investment in ether for the redemption of Shares.
Cash Resources and Liquidity
The Trust does not hold a cash balance except in connection with the issuance and redemption of Baskets or to pay expenses not assumed by the Sponsor. To the extent the Trust does not have available cash to facilitate redemptions or pay expenses not assumed by the Sponsor, the Trust will sell ether. When selling ether on behalf of the Trust, the Sponsor endeavors to minimize the Trust's holdings of assets other than ether. As a consequence, the Sponsor expects that the Trust will have an immaterial amount of cash flow from its operations and that its cash balance will be insignificant at the end of each reporting period. The Trust's only sources of cash are proceeds from the sale of Baskets and ether.
In exchange for the Sponsor Fee, the Sponsor has agreed to assume most of the expenses incurred by the Trust.
Off Balance Sheet Arrangements and Contractual Obligations
The Trust has not used, nor does it expect to use in the future, special purpose entities to facilitate off balance sheet financing arrangements and has no loan guarantee arrangements or off balance sheet arrangements of any kind other than agreements entered into in the normal course of business, which may include indemnification provisions related to certain risks service providers undertake in performing services for the Trust. While the Trust's exposure under such indemnification provisions cannot be estimated, these general business indemnifications are not expected to have a material impact on a Trust's financial position.
Sponsor Fee payments made to the Sponsor are calculated as a fixed percentage of the Trust's Ether Holdings. As such, the Sponsor cannot anticipate the payment amounts that will be required under these arrangements for future periods as the Trust's Ether Holdings are not known until a future date.
Selected Operating Data
|
March 31, 2026 |
||||
|
Price of ether on principal market (1) |
$ |
2,101.84 |
||
|
Index price (2) |
$ |
2,097.30 |
||
|
March 31, 2026 |
||||
|
NAV per Share (3) |
$ |
20.95 |
||
|
Adjustment to NAV per Share |
$ |
(0.04 |
) |
|
|
Trust's NAV per Share (4) |
$ |
20.91 |
||
As of 4:00 p.m., EST, on the last business day of the three months ended March 31, 2026, the Trust's total value of ether based on the Index Price (non-GAAP methodology) was $1,209,767,694, a difference of $2,618,770 to the GAAP value, which was $1,212,386,464, and the total market value of the Trust's ether based on the price of ether at 4:00 p.m., EST, in the principal market was $1,208,567,905, a difference of $3,818,559 to the GAAP value, which was $1,212,386,464.
|
December 31, 2025 |
||||
|
Price of ether on principal market (1) |
$ |
2,971.55 |
||
|
Index price (2) |
$ |
2,963.88 |
||
|
December 31, 2025 |
||||
|
NAV per Share (3) |
$ |
29.64 |
||
|
Adjustment to NAV per Share |
$ |
(0.08 |
) |
|
|
Trust's NAV per Share (4) |
$ |
29.56 |
||
As of 4:00 p.m., EST, on the last business day of the year ended December 31, 2025, the Trust's total value of ether based on the Index Price (non-GAAP methodology) was $2,204,520,518, a difference of $5,704,911 to the GAAP value, which was $2,210,225,429, and the total market value of the Trust's ether based on the price of an ether at 4:00 p.m., EST, in the principal market (non-GAAP methodology) was $2,210,515,510, a difference of $290,081 to the GAAP value, which was $2,210,225,429.
Analysis of Price Movements
Investors should understand the relationship between the Index Price (non-GAAP measurement of the price of ether), the Trust's NAV per Share (non-GAAP measurement of the price of ether affected by non-ether net assets, such as the Sponsor Fee), the Trust's market price per share, and ether's principal market price. Investors should also be aware that past movements are not indicators of future movements. Movements may be influenced by various factors, including, but not limited to, government regulation, security breaches experienced by service providers, as well as political and economic uncertainties around the world.
The following chart illustrates the movement in the Index Price, the principal market price, and the Trust's NAV per Share during the three months ended March 31, 2026.
During the three months ended March 31, 2026, the Index Price has ranged from $1,853.94 on February 23, 2026, to $3,375.83 on January 14, 2026. The Sponsor has not observed a material difference between the Index Price and average prices from the constituent ether spot markets individually or as a group.
During the three months ended March 31, 2026, the 11:59:59 p.m. EST market price of ether, as reported on the Trust's principal market, has ranged from $1,830.25 on February 23, 2026, to $3,337.73 on January 14, 2026.
Shares trade in the secondary market on the Exchange. Shares may trade in the secondary market at prices that are lower or higher relative to the Trust's NAV per Share. The amount of the discount or premium in the trading price relative to the Trust's NAV per Share may be influenced by various factors, including the number of Shareholders who seek to purchase or sell Shares in the secondary market and the liquidity of ether. The following chart sets out the historical closing prices for the Shares as reported by the Exchange and the Trust's NAV per Share during the three months ended March 31, 2026.