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In a post on X, Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at investment management firm VanEck, suggested that Microsoft may be open to invest in an Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) if it fulfills the company’s yield requirements. Sigel remarked that it “sounds to [him] like MSFT is open to an ETH ETF as long as they can collect staking income.”
Microsoft Open To Spot Ethereum ETFs?
This interpretation came after Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft, reiterated the company’s long standing engagement with digital assets. While not specifically referencing ETH, Hood noted that Microsoft began accepting cryptocurrency as payment from customers in 2014 and has continued doing so ever since.
“I think it’s important to step back and realize that almost a decade ago, actually maybe a little over, we first started accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment from our customers, and that was in 2014. And we continue to do that today. We were amongst one of the very early companies to realize and accept this after listening to customers,” Hood said.
According to her, the treasury team regularly reviews all available asset classes with an eye on three key factors that influence future decisions. “Our treasury team, along with reviews with the Board of Directors, looks at all the asset classes available to us. It’s important to remember our criteria and our goals of our balance sheet and for the cash balances, importantly, is to preserve capital, to allow a lot of liquidity to be able to fund our operations and partnerships and investments.”
Hood indicated that digital assets are “something we cover with our Board consistently” as Microsoft gauges whether any given category meets its strategic goals. “So with those three goals, we look across asset classes, including cryptocurrency as a form of investment. It’s something we cover with our Board consistently and continue to assess different categories year to year if our goals were to change,” she added.
Sigel’s inference that Microsoft could lean toward ETH-based products rests on three points: the company’s early acceptance of crypto as a payment method, an ongoing evaluation of digital assets at the board level, and the role yield generation could play in any investment choice. Sigel stated:
1) They accept crypto and believe in its utility.
2) The board has already and will continue to evaluate digital assets for the reserve.
3) If the asset has a yield = higher chance of MSFT buying it.
However, not everyone found this conclusion airtight. One Ethereum community member questioned Sigel’s reading of Hood’s remarks, calling it a “leap” to assume Microsoft might buy ETH ETFs, though conceding it remains “possible.”
When asked whether Microsoft might also consider Solana (SOL), Sigel responded succinctly, “Yes.” VanEck itself has experience in the altcoin ETF space, offering a spot Ethereum ETF and having filed an application in June with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot Solana ETF. With the incoming Trump administration, experts believe that spot altcoin ETFs like Solana are highly likely to be approved under the new SEC Chairman Paul Atkins.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently turned down a different crypto-related proposal. According to a prior report from Bitcoinist, a group of shareholders urged the tech giant to include Bitcoin as a reserve asset. That proposal, voted on December 10, failed to gain traction—only 0.55% of shareholders supported it, and the majority effectively rejected the notion of adding BTC to Microsoft’s balance sheet.
Notably, the US SEC approved the first spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on June 23 this year. One key factor for the approval was the removal of staking features in response to the agency’s concerns about the potential classification of staking as an unregistered security.
At press time, ETH traded at $3,931.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
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