VanEck applies to list the first BNB ETF in the United States

Asset management firm VanEck has applied to U.S. regulators to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that holds BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB chain, according to regulatory filings.

The ETF is designed to accumulate spot BNB tokens and “may from time to time stake a portion of [the fund’s] assets through one or more trusted staking providers,” according to the ETF’s S-1 prospectus. This is the first time an asset management company has applied for a BNB ETF in the U.S.

The BNB token has a market value of about $84 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. According to Stakingrewards.com data, as of May 5, BNB stakers can earn a yield of about 2.5%.

Binance’s BNB chain is one of the most popular smart contract networks, with a total locked value (TVL) of nearly $6 billion, according to DeFiLlama data.

Bitcoin’s “spillover” effect?

Days before the filing, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) reportedly said he expects the popularity of the Bitcoin ETF to eventually “spill over” to other cryptocurrencies.

"This cycle so far has been dominated by ETFs. And it's almost all Bitcoin. Ethereum hasn't been as successful as Bitcoin, but Bitcoin's success will eventually spill over to other coins," CZ reportedly said at the Token2049 conference in Dubai.

Since launching in January 2024, spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted more than $40 billion in net inflows, according to Farside Investors.

VanEck's application is one of the latest in a wave of applications seeking to list ETFs that hold altcoins.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accepted dozens of cryptocurrency ETF proposals since President Trump took office on January 20.

These proposals include plans for ETFs that hold native layer 1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) and meme coins such as Dogecoin (DOGE).

In the past few months, VanEck has applied to list other cryptocurrency ETFs, including funds that hold Solana and Avalanche (AVAX).