Asset manager VanEck submitted an application to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the "Onchain Economy" exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Jan. 15, a now-deleted social media comment from VanEck head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel revealed.

According to the filing, the fund will invest in crypto firms across the industry, including software developers, mining companies, crypto exchanges, infrastructure builders, payment firms, and other businesses in the crypto sector.

The asset manager defined these as "Digital Transformation Companies", and wrote in the SEC filing:

"Digital Transformation Companies are selected based on a combination of fundamental analysis, market trends, the company's strategic positioning within the digital asset ecosystem, and valuation."

The fund will also invest in digital asset instruments such as commodity futures contracts but will not invest in digital assets directly by holding crypto. VanEck's application is one of the latest ETF filings in anticipation of new leadership at the SEC.

Related: SEC postpones listing decision for Bitwise crypto index ETF

Financial firms file a bevy of crypto ETF applications

Following the re-election of President-elect Donald Trump in the United States, and in anticipation of a friendlier regulatory climate, asset managers and financial firms filed or updated SEC applications for crypto ETFs.

Digital asset manager Bitwise submitted an application for the 10 Crypto Index Fund ETF in November 2024.

The index includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), SOL (SOL), XRP (XRP), Avalanche's AVAX (AVAX), Chainlink's LINK (LINK) token, Cardano's native currency ADA (ADA), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Uniswap (UNI), and Polkadot (DOT).

ETF provider WisdomTree filed for an XRP ETF in December 2024 — joining the ranks of 21Shares, Canary Capital, and Bitwise.

Grayscale, a digital asset management firm, also applied for a Solana ETF in December. The firm petitioned the SEC for approval to convert its existing Grayscale Solana Trust into an exchange-traded fund.

That same month, asset manager REX Financial debuted the REX Crypto Equity Premium Income ETF, which relies on a covered-call strategy of writing options against crypto stocks to generate income.

More recently, Bitwise submitted a regulatory filing to the SEC proposing to list the Bitwise Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF — an ETF that invests in companies with large Bitcoin holdings.

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