SEC Greenlights Bitwise’s Spot Chainlink ETF for NYSE Arca Listing

Wall Street's crypto embrace accelerates—Chainlink gets the institutional nod.

The Regulatory Gate Opens

The Securities and Exchange Commission just cleared the runway. Bitwise Asset Management's spot Chainlink ETF is approved for listing on NYSE Arca, marking another critical step in bridging decentralized oracle networks with traditional finance's plumbing.

Why This ETF Cuts Through the Noise

Forget speculative futures contracts. This fund tracks the actual asset. It gives investors direct exposure to LINK's price movements without the hassle of managing private keys or navigating crypto-native exchanges—a classic Wall Street move: repackaging decentralized tech into a familiar, regulated wrapper.

The Oracle's Mainstream Moment

Chainlink's price feeds already underpin billions in DeFi value. This listing signals a broader validation of its infrastructure role. It's not just another altcoin; it's the data backbone that smart contracts rely on, now getting a ticker symbol next to blue-chip stocks.

A Calculated Bet on Real-World Assets

The approval underscores a growing thesis: the future of finance hinges on connecting blockchains to external data. This ETF lets traditional portfolios bet on that connectivity layer itself—a pure-play on the "oracle economy" finally hitting the big board.

Finance's Ironic Twist

Here's the jab: after years of traditional finance scoffing at crypto's volatility, they're now racing to bottle its most utilitarian protocols into ETFs they can charge fees on. The revolution gets a management expense ratio.

The bottom line? Chainlink's infrastructure just became an institutional asset class. The pipes are going public.

Bitwise file second amendment for LINK ETF

The approval follows Bitwise’s FORM 8-A and S-1 amendment number 2 filings with the SEC, a required step for securities intended to trade on national exchanges. The firm submitted both statements on Monday under the Securities Act of 1933, updating disclosures of the structure and operation of the trust.

According to the S-1 amendment prospectus, the trust will charge a unitary management fee of 0.34% per year, calculated based on the value of the trust’s Chainlink holdings. For the first three months after listing, Bitwise has agreed to waive the entire sponsor fee on the first $500 million in trust assets.

Shares of the ETF will be created and redeemed in blocks of 10,000 shares, referred to as a basket. Each basket will correspond to a specific quantity of LINK attributable to each share, adjusted for accrued but unpaid expenses and liabilities. 

Bitwise has appointed Coinbase as the custodian for the trust, responsible for safeguarding the assets and segregated accounts holding LINK. The prospectus also mentioned that staking was not included at the time of its application. However, Bitwise intends to amend the registration statement at a later date to permit staking as a secondary investment objective. 

“The amended registration statement will include a detailed description of the Trust’s staking program under a section entitled “STAKING.” In connection with this secondary investment objective of seeking to derive additional Chainlink through staking, the Trust will stake some or all of the Chainlink held in the Trust Chainlink Accounts,” the amendment filing read.

Bitwise to add Chainlink in list of ETP products

Bitwise witnessed an event-packed 2025 with several ETF filings slated to be approved or turned down by the SEC this year. Just before last year’s end, the financial institution submitted applications for 11 crypto exchange-traded funds with the SEC through an N-1A filing.

The San Francisco-based asset manager is seeking approval for a “strategy” ETFs meant to make both direct and indirect investments in Aave, Canton, Ethena, Hyperliquid, NEAR, Starknet, Sui, Bittensor, Tron, Uniswap, and Zcash. Each of these funds WOULD invest up to 60% of its assets directly in a token, with the rest allocated to one or more exchange-traded products that provide exposure to the same asset.

In October, Bitwise became the first issuer to launch a spot Solana ETF in the United States, and followed that debut by launching XRP and Dogecoin ETFs the next month. More recently, Bitwise filed an S-1 registration statement for a spot Sui ETF and submitted an amended filing for a Hyperliquid ETF.

Chainlink’s price initially showed strong upward movement on news of the ETF approval. The asset gained more than 9.8% over the past week to trade at $14.18 per Coingecko data. However, a price correction pulled the price back down 1.5% in the last 24 hours.

Chainlink’s daily trading volume went up by nearly 45%, while futures market data from Coinglass showed open interest climbing to around $665 million, which suggests more traders are opening new positions than closing short-term trades.

Some market watchers see the current chart setup as bearish, citing weak indicators and a pullback toward $13.2, or even down to $12.8. The two price levels present areas to watch for bearish confirmation, where the token could draw several rejection candles or failure swings to the upside.

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